LI BRARY OF CONGRE SS, 

[SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.] i 



$?I>±J 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



THE PREMIUM ESSAY 



THE CHARACTERISTICS AND LAWS 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS. 



THE REY. EDWARD < WINTIIROP, AX, 

RECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, NORWALK, OHIO 



There is a God (n IiriTcn that reveafcth secrets, and maketh known . . . what shall be in (ha 
Ifiltsr days.— San. ii. 28. 



NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY FRANKLIN KNIGHT, 

140 NASSAU STREET. 




1854 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854. 

By FRA NKLIN KNIGHT, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of 
New York. 



E. CRAIGHEAD. PRINTER. AND STEHEOTYPER, 
53 VESEY STREET, N Y. 



CONTENTS 



Pago 

Preface ... . vii-xiii. 



CHAPTER L 

Introduction — design of the present Essay — the Holy 
Scriptures, the paramount authority in this inquiry 
— mode of argument, and line of diseussion adopted 
by the author — Nature and Office of Prophetic 
Symbols — they are not figures of speech — difference 
between symbols and metaphors — their representa- 
tive import proved by various examples from the 
Scriptures — Marks by which Symbolic Prophecies 
are distinguishable from those which are verbal. 1-15 

CHAPTER IL 

Classification of the symbols — principle on which 

symbols are employed 16-21 

CHAPTER IIL 

Seven laws of symbolization — discussion of the first 

law , . . 22-33 



IV CONTENTS. 

Page 

CHAPTER IV. 
Discussion of thk second law 34-42 

CHAPTER V. 
Discussion of the third law 43-71 

CHAPTER VI. 
Discussion of the fourth law 78-92 

CHAPTER VII. 
Discussion of the fifth law 93-95 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Discussion of the sixth law 96-9*7 

CHAPTER IX. 
Discussion of the seventh law 98-106 

CHAPTER X. 

Brief Recapitulation, in which it is shown that the 
symbols interpreted in the prophecies are interpret- 
ed by these laws — that interpretations of one or 



CONTENTS. V 

Page 
more of eacli class of symbols are given in the pro- 
phecies — and that these inspired interpretations are 
to be regarded as a revelation of the principle ap- 
plicable to all the symbols, and the laws by which 
they are framed, revealed laws 107—111 



CHAPTER XI. 

Results of these laws. 

L These Laws obviate difficulties, and give consist- 
ency and certainty to interpretation — proof and 
illustration of this by various examples, and par- 
ticularly by an exposition of the drying up of 
the symbolical Euphrates, Rev. xvi. 12. 

II. These Laws show that to spiritualize the symbol- 
ic prophecies is altogether wrong. 

III. The slaughter of the two apocalyptic witnesses, 

Rev. xi., foreshows a real, literal slaughter of 
the faithful followers of Christ thus represented 
— a slaughter which is yet future. 

IV. The antichristian powers are to be destroyed, not 

converted. 

V. There will be, anterior to the millennium, a real 
and literal resurrection of departed saints. 

VI. The second coming of Christ will be before the 
millennium. 

VII. There will be men living in the natural body on 

the earth after Christ's second coming 112-139 



VI CONTENTS. 

Page 
CHAPTER XII. 

■ Answer to objections against the seventh result. 

1. Objection from what is said in 2 Pet. iii., respect- 

ing the perishing of the earth by fire. 

2. Objection from the parable of the sheep and the 

goats, Matt. xxt. 31-46. The verbal prophecies 
confirm the view taken in the preceding chap- 
ter. 

3. Objection from Christ's declaration — "My king- 

dom is not of this world," John xviii. 36. 

4. Objection from Christ's delivering up the king- 

dom, 1 Cor. xv. 24-28. 

5. Objection from the post-millennial revolt, Rev. 

xx. 7-9. 

6. Objection from the limited extent of the earth, 

and the insufficiency of its means of nutrition. 
Moral impressiveness of the view here present- 
ed 140-169 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Results — (Continued.) 

YIH. The millennium is to continue three hundred 
and sixty thousand years. 
IX. A series of the most stupendous events is not 

very far distant 170-173 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Conclusion — Practical Reflections — the impending cri- 
sis — state of the visible church — duty of investigat- 



CONTENTS. Vll 

Page, 
mg all the Scriptures — testimony of the Holy Ghost 

to the utility of studying unfulfilled prophecy — 
grandeur of redemption — the ease with which the 
laws of symbolization may be mastered, and made 
the means of a large and useful knowledge of the 
prophecies — the claims of the subject upon the at- 
tention of Christians in general, and especially of 
ministers and teachers of the word — exhortation to 
trust and obey the Lord — origin, grandeur, and dura- 
tion of the kingdom of Christ 174-184 



PREFACE 



The occasion and object of this Essay will be explained 
by the following Circular, issued in June, 1851 : 

"Premiums offered for three essays on the chabacteris- 
tics and laws of prophetic symbols. 

" The views of the Char oxter istics and Laws of Prophetic 
Symbolization, presented in the Theological and Literary Jour- 
nal, have attracted the attention of many persons in different 
parts of the country, especially of those in the SaCred Office, 
excited curiosity and investigation, and induced the feeling 
that they are entitled to a careful consideration by the stu- 
dents of the Bible. 

"It is known that a very considerable number have become 
satisfied of the accuracy of these laws, and deem it of great 
moment that they should be generally understood and adopted. 
Another class, who regard them with much interest, and find 
themselves at a loss how to confute them, or set aside the con- 
structions to which they lead, nevertheless, hesitate to give 
them their full assent, and before they finally determine, de- 
sire to know w^hat can be said against them by the advocates 
of other systems of interpretation. A third class reject them, 
not, so far as is known, on the ground of any direct evidence 
of their inaccuracy, but because the results to which they lead 
conflict with the views they have been accustomed to enter* 



X PREFACE. 

tain of the administration God is hereafter to exercise over 
the world. 

"A strong wish is felt, therefore, by many of these several 
classes, that the validity of these laws should be tried in some 
form that will enable inquirers generally, and especially such 
as have not leisure for a minute investigation, to decide more 
satisfactorily in respect to them ; and for that purpose a fund 
has been subscribed to offer as premiums for three essays on 
the subject, that shall be deemed, by parties to be named as 
Adjudicators, the best entitled to them ; — the point to be ar- 
gued and proved being whether those Characteristics and 
Laws are, or are Dot, the true Characteristics and Laws of 
Prophetic Symbols ; and the sum of Four Hundred Dollars to 
be awarded and paid to the Author of the Essay which most 
legitimately and effectively demonstrates the alternative he 
endeavors to establish ; the sum of Two Hundred Dollars to 
the Author of the Essay the next in merit in that respect ; and 
the sum of One Hundred Dollars to the Author of the Essay 
the third in rank in that relation ; provided, that of those pre- 
sented, three of them are of such character and merit as justly 
to be entitled to the premiums. 

" The chief points to be discussed by the Essayists are the 
views presented in the Journal, and other works of the Editor,* 
respecting — 

I. The Nature and Office of Prophetic Symbols : 

II. The Marks by which the Symbolic Prophecies are dis- 
tinguishable from those of which Language is the 
Medium : 

III. The Classification of the Symbols: 

IV. The Principles on which they are employed : 
V. Their Laws: 

VI. Whether the Symbols that are interpreted in the Pro- 
phecies are interpreted by these Laws : 
VH. "Whether Interpretations are given in the Prophecies of 

one or more of each class of Symbols : 
VIH. Whether these inspired Interpretations are to be re- 

* Mr. David N. Lord, of the city of New York. 



PREFACE. XI 

garded as a Revelation of the principle on which 
Symbols are employed, and the Laws by which they 
are framed, revealed Laws. 
IX. The Results to which they lead — whether they obviate 
Difficulties, remove uncertainties, supply important 
Defects, give consistency and certainty to Interpreta- 
tion, and lead to a clear and demonstrable Explica- 
tion of many Symbols of which no satisfactory Solu- 
tion is obtained by other Systems of construction. 
X. The Ease with which they may be mastered and made 
the means of a large and useful Knowledge of the 
Prophecies : 
XT. Their claims to the consideration of Ministers of the Sa- 
cred Word, and of Christians generally. 
" "Writers are at liberty to select and arrange the order of 
the points they may discuss to, suit themselves ; and it is ex- 
pected that they will not merely state their opinions, but give 
their reasons also for the judgment which they express ; and 
that those who reject the views advanced in the Journal will 
state what they regard as the true Characteristics and Laws 
of Prophetic Symbols, and the considerations by which they 
believe them to be sustained. 

" Men of ability and high standing will be selected as the 
Adjudicators, whose names will be duly announced. 

" The Essays which obtain the awards are to be the pro- 
perty of the contributors to the Premium Fund, and to be pub- 
lished in the Journal or otherwise, as they may deem expe- 
dient. 

" The Manuscripts, with a note from the author, should be 
addressed to the Adjudicators, and sent (post paid) to Franklin 
Knight, Publisher of the Theological and Literary Journal, 
140 Nassau street, New York, on or before the first of Febru- 
ary, 1852. 

" Many clergymen and other gentlemen have expressed a 
desire that this subject, which they regard as one of great in- 
terest and importance, may be thus carefully investigated and 
thoroughly discussed — among whom are the following : — 
"Rev. James S. Cannon, D.D., Rutgers College, N. J. ; Rt. 



Xll PREFACE. • 

Rev. Charles P. M'llvaine, DD, Ohio; Rev. Nathan Lord, 
DD, Dartmouth College, K H. ; Rev. Leonard Woods, D.D., 
Mass. ; Rev. John Forsyth, D.D, Princeton College, K J. ; Rev. 
Mark Hopkins, D.D., Williams College, Mass. ; Rev. J. II. 
Thornwell, D.D., S. C. ; Rt. Rev. J. P. K. Henshaw, DD, 
R. I. ; Rev. Willis Lord, D.D., Ohio ; Rev. Leroy M. Lee, D.D., 
Va. ; Rev. Edward N. Kirk, D.D., Mass. ; Rev. William Thomp- 
son, D.D., Theol. Inst., Conn. ; Rev. Edward Hitchcock, D.D, 
Amherst College, Mass. ; Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, D.D., Pa. ; 
Rev. Robert Ryland, Richmond College, Va. ; Rev. George 
Duffield, D.D., Mich. ; Rev. Henry Gregory, D.D., K Y. ; Rev. 
John M. Krebs, D.D., N. Y. ; Rev. Isaac Anderson, D.D, Tenn. ; 
Rev. Richard Newton, Pa. ; Rev. Edward Winthrop, Ohio ; 
Rev. Charles K. Imbrie, N. J. ; Rev. Thomas E. Peck, Md. ; 
Rev. Randolph Campbell, Mass. ; Rev. William B. Stevens, 
D.D., Pa. ; Rev. L. H. Van Doren, N". J. ; Rev. M. L. P. Thomp- 
son, D.D., N. Y. ; Rev. Walter Clarke, Conn. ; Rev. John Rich- 
ards, D.D., K H. ; Rev. J. F. Halsey, N. J. ; Rev. D. S. Miller, 
Pa. ; Rev Adam Empie, DD , Va, ; Rev. George Potts, D.D, 
If. Y. ; Rev. John M. Macauley, 1ST. Y. ; Rev. William Ramsey, 
Pa. ; Rev. Thomas V. Moore, Va. ; Rev. William R, Williams, 
D.D, N. Y. ; Rev. E. Dunlap Smith, D.D, N. Y. ; Rev. W. W. 
Blauvelt, K J. ; Rev. J. T. Ward, Pa. ; Hon. J. C. Hornhlower, 
K". J.; Hon. Bellamy Storer, Ohio ; Messrs. Benjamin Douglass, 
Henry Smith, James Donaldson, B. R. Winthrop, D. 0. Cal- 
kins, Chester Driggs, 1ST. Y." 
New York, June 10th, 1851. 



Such was the Circular. The Rt. Rev. Charles P. M'll- 
vaine, D.D., D.C.L., the Rev. Alexander T. M'Gill, D.D., 
and the Rev. John Forsyth, Jr., D.D., consented to act as 
Adjudicators. The result is that but one premium has been 
awarded, and that to the writer of the following Essay. 

The author has carefully discussed all the topics proposed 
in the Circular ; and in revising his work for the press, has 



PREFACE. X1U 

endeavored to present the argument with clearness and con- 
densation, to call the attention of the reader to the exact line 
of reasoning, to answer the main objections, and to bring out 
prominently some of the chief results of the laws here de- 
monstrated. He indulges the hope that this Essay, on the 

CHARACTERISTICS AND LAWS OF PROPHETIC SYMBOLS, Will 

prove a useful contribution towards the settlement of right 
principles for the interpretation of the word of God, and thus 
be the means of advancing the Redeemer's glory, confirming 
the faith of his people, and unfolding the revealed plan of the 
divine administration. 

EDWARD WINTHROP. 
Norwalk, Omo, November 11th, 1853. 






CHARACTERISTICS AND LAWS 



OF 



PROPHETIC SYMBOLS 



CHAPTEE I. 

iNTRODucriON.-Design of the present Essay-tbe Holy Scrip- 
tures, the paramount authority in this inquiry-mode of 
argument and line of discussion adopted by the author— 

NATURE AND OFFICE OF PROPHETIC SVMBOLS-they are not 

figures of speech-difference between symbols and meta- 
phors-their representative import proved by various exam- 
ples from the Scriptures-MARxs by which symbolic pro- 
phecies ARE DISTINGUISHABLE FROM THOSE WHICH ARE VERBAL. 

The prophetic Scriptures reveal to us the pur- 
poses of God and the destinies of men; and 
hence, to demonstrate the true principles on 
which these Scriptures are to be interpreted, 
and to develop the consequences of their correct 
application, is to confer a lasting benefit on all 
who love the sacred oracles, and bow, with ador- 
ing acquiescence, to their infallible decisions. 

It is our design, in the present essay, to exhi- 
1 



2 CHARACTERISTICS AND LAWS 

bit the nature and office of prophetic symbols ; 
to point out certain marks by which the sym- 
bolic are distinguishable from the verbal prophe- 
cies ; to arrange the symbols in classes ; to un- 
fold the principle on which they are employed ; 
to expound their laws ; to show that the symbols 
interpreted in the prophecies are interpreted by 
these laws ; that interpretations of one or more 
of each class of symbols are given in the prophe- 
cies ; and that these inspired interpretations are 
to be regarded as a revelation of the principle 
applicable to all the symboTs, and the laws by 
which they are framed revealed laws ; to notice 
the results to whioh they lead, and the ease with 
which they may be mastered and made the 
means of a large and useful knowledge of the 
prophecies ; and to present the claims which 
they have upon the attention both of ministers 
and people. 

These are the topics to which the Circular* 
calls our attention. We shall examine them all, 
and discuss them thoroughly, but with as much 
brevity as justice to the subject will admit. 

In traversing this wide field of inquiry, the 
Holy Scriptures must be the lamp by which our 
feet are to be guided ; for it is only by walking 

* See Preface, p. ix. 



OF PROPHETIC SYMBOLS. 6 

in the light of these divine oracles, that we shall 
be kept from going astray. We must resort not 
to the fancies of ancient soothsayers, or the spe- 
culations of modern rationalists, but to the Bible 
itself, in order to perceive the manner in which 
symbols are used, and to deduce the laws by 
which they are to be explained. A careful and 
accurate analysis of passages from the word of 
God is absolutely indispensable; and that will 
undeniably be the best and most powerful mode 
of reasoning, which, by the clearness of its state- 
ments and the simplicity of its proofs, carries 
conviction to the unbiassed mind. Luminous 
and consistent exposition, therefore, in which we 
compare Scripture with Scripture to show the 
true meaning of the inspired volume, and to 
exhibit the principles of interpretation which 
those Scriptures themselves reveal, is the kind of 
discussion most needed. Such will be the line 
of argument in this essay. Avoiding collateral 
issues, and confining ourselves, for the most part, 
to the main points in question, we shall en- 
deavor to ascertain the real import of the sym- 
bols themselves, as well as of the language which 
describes them. "We hope that our readers will 
study the work with attention, fairness, and 
candor; for on such a subject involving the 



4: NATURE AND OFFICE 

most grave and momentous questions, it is only 
by divesting ourselves, as far as possible, of all 
perverting influences, and examining the evi- 
dence deliberately, impartially, and prayerfully 
— looking to the Spirit of God to guide us in our 
investigations — that we can arrive at the truth. 
Let us then consider, in the first place, the 

NATURE AND OFFICE OF PROPHETIC SYMBOLS. 

The symbols are not rhetorical images employ- 
ed by the prophets, that is, they are not figures 
of speech : but they are representative agents and 
objects (with their acts, effects, characteristics, 
conditions, and relations) ; and, unless naturally 
perceptible, they were in dream, or vision, made 
perceptible by the Almighty, who thus indicated 
what should come to pass at the time appointed : 
and hence a metaphor (which is a mere mode of 
expression) and a symbol (which is an agent, ob- 
ject, act, effect), though often confounded by 
writers on prophecy, are entirely distinct from 
each other. 
Thus when the Psalmist says, " the Lord is 
. . . my high tower," Psl. xviii. 2, there 
is a metaphor. Jehovah, and no one else, is the 
subject of the affirmation. The metaphor is in 
the phrase high tower : and the figure of speech 
consists in predicating of the Deity that which, 



OF PROPHETIC SYMBOLS. 



in the literal sense of the words, is incompatible 
with his nature, it being impossible that God 
who is a spirit, a living being, should be literally 
a wooden or stone building, a mere inanimate 
edifice, such as is called a tower. The meaning 
of the Psalmist obviously is, that as men resort 
to a tower for defence and security, so he trusted 
in the Lord for defence and security ; and there- 
fore on account of the attributes by which he is 
capable of affording protection, the qualities in 
which, in a certain relation, he resembles a 
strong building, Jehovah is figuratively denomi- 
nated a tower, which literally he is not. Nor is 
the language in Psl. xviii. 2, descriptive of any 
scenic representation either naturally or in vision, 
so that neither Jehovah nor the tower is there 
used as a symbol. 

On the other hand, when Daniel says that he 
saw a he-goat rushing violently against a ram 
and overthrowing him, Dan. viii. 5-7, the terms 
ram and he-goat are not used metaphorically but 
literally, and designate exactly what was seen 
in the vision, namely, a literal ram and a literal 
he-goat acting in the manner described : and 
those animals were symbols, that is, they were 
agents representing, according to the inspired 
interpretation, Dan. viii. 20, 21, opposing kings. 



6 NATURE AND OFFICE 

In the great image, Dan. ii., the great tree, 
Dan. iv., and the four ravenous beasts, Dan. 
-vii.,* we have examples of symbols which were 
perceptible in dreams: in the prophet Isaiah, 
chap, xx., the prophet Ezekiel, chap, iv., and 
the high priest with the crowns, Zech. vi., we 
have examples of symbols which were percepti- 
ble naturally ; and in the locusts, Rev. ix., the 
seven-headed and ten-horned beast, and the two- 
horned beast, Rev. xiii., and the woman support- 
ed by the beast, Rev. xvii., we have examples 
of symbols which were perceptible in ecstatic 
visions.** 

The office of the symbols, the representative 
agents, objects, acts, effects, &c, is to denote 
agents, objects, acts, effects, &c, of the same 
order or kind, or those which are of a different 
but nevertheless analogous order. In the dreams 
and visions of the Hebrew prophets, and so too 
when those prophets or other real men were 
employed naturally as representative agents, 
and so also in the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar 
respecting the great image and the great tree, 
an agent, when used as^a symbol, always sym- 
bolizes an agent and not an act or effect, not a 

* "Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: 
then he wrote the dream." Dan. vii. 1. 



OF PROPHETIC SYMBOLS. 7 

principle or system, not an attribute, quality, or 
condition : an object upon which agency is 
exerted always represents an object upon which 
agency is exerted : and the symbolic acts, effects, 
characteristics, conditions, and relations foreshow 
corresponding acts, effects, characteristics, con- 
ditions, and relations of the things symbolized. 
And thns whenever future events are disclosed 
exclusively through the medium of prophetic 
symbols, it is by a species of scenic representa- 
tion. 

That such is the nature and office of prophetic 
symbols, the Scriptures furnish the most ample 
proof. Thus, in the eighth chapter of Daniel, to 
recur to an example already given, the Medo- 
Persian dynasty is represented by a ram which 
had two horns. "The ram which thou sawest 
having two horns are the kings of Media and 
Persia," verse 20. The prophet says, " I saw the 
ram pushing westward, and northward, and 
southward," verse 4. The ram was a symbolical 
or representative agent, and his action, in push- 
ing successfully against -the other beasts, fore- 
showed the analogous action of the Medo-Persian 
kings against other chiefs in the same directions. 
The term " ram," as we have stated, is not used 
metaphorically but literally : and the language 



8 NATURE AND OFFICE 

here employed, Dan. viii. 4, is simply descriptive 
of a past event which the prophet had seen in a 
vision, to wit, the agency of the ram. Hence 
the prediction in this verse is not at all through 
the medium of the language, but entirely through 
that of the symbols. By a correct interpretation 
of the language we learn what the symbol was, 
and what it did. The symbol was a ram, and 
the ram was seen pushing with his horns against 
other beasts, so that they could not stand before 
him. When therefore we have explained only 
the meaning of the words, we have not given an 
exposition of the true import of the prophecy. 
"We have merely shown what had been perceived 
in the vision. In order to give a full exposition 
of the prophecy, we must show also what is sig- 
nified by the symbol, and by the agency which it 
exerted. So also in regard to the " he-goat" 
The language is so plain that it requires no com- 
ment — it is nearly all literal — the verbs are all 
in the past tense, and the prophecy is clearly 
through the medium of the symbols. " And as 
I was considering, behold a he-goat came from 
the west, on the face of the whole earth, and 
touched not the ground; and the goat had a 
notable horn between his eyes. And he came 
to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen 



OF PKOPHETIC SYMBOLS. 9 

standing before the river, and ran unto him in 
the fury of his power. And I saw him come 
close unto the ram, and he was moved with 
choler against him, and smote the ram, and 
brake his two horns : and there was no power in 
the ram to stand before him, but he cast him 
down to the ground, and stamped upon him : 
and there was none that could deliver the ram 
out of his hand." Dan. viii. 5-7. From the 
twenty -first verse we learn what was symbolized 
by the he-goat — " the king of Grecia : and the 
great horn that is between his eyes is the first 
king." The ram had been explained in verse 
twentieth, as symbolizing " the kings of Media 
and Persia." The overthrow of the ram, there- 
fore, by the he-goat indicated the analogous 
overthrow of the Medo-Persian dynasty, and 
was historically verified in the conquest of Da- 
rius by Alexander the Great. The inspired 
interpretation in this, as in all similar cases, is 
an interpretation of the symbols only, and not of 
the language: and this is decisive that the pre- 
diction is through the medium of the former, and 
not through that of the latter. In many of the 
prophecies there is no prediction whatever, un- 
less it be through the medium of the symbols : 
as in those just cited, and in that of the last 
1* 



-»w. 10 NATURE AND OFFICE 

resurrection and the final judgment, Rev. xx. 12- 
15, where, with the exception of the clause in 
verse fourteenth — "this is the second death" — 
which is an inspired interpretation thrown in 
parenthetically, all the words are descriptive of 
something that was past, namely, the symbolic 
exhibition which had been seen by St. John, 
and which foreshowed a corresponding future 
reality. Hence the only way in which this and 
other passages of similar construction can fore- 
show the future is through the medium of the 

SYMBOLS, THE REPRESENTATIVE AGENTS, OBJECTS, 

and acts which point to the future. This is just 
as true when the symbol is of the same class, 
order, or species, with the thing symbolized, as 
it is when it is of a different but analogous order. 
Thus the vision in Rev. xx. 12-15, is truly sym- 
botic or representative in its import. The un- 
holy raised from death, as seen in that vision, 
represent the real deceased wicked who are to be 
raised after the expiration of the millennium : 
and their resurrection, and their being judged 
and cast into the lake of fire, foreshow the cor- 
responding real resurrection, judgment, and 
punishment of that class of persons at that 
epoch. 
Sometimes there is a transition from prophecy 



OF PROPHETIC SYMBOLS. 



11 



through the medium of symbols, to prophecy 
through the medium of language. Thus in the 
fourth chapter of Daniel, after the symbol tree 
has been spoken of in verses 10-15, there is a 
transition in the latter part of verse fifteen to 
Nebuchadnezzar himself, who was the person 
symbolized by that tree : " Let his portion be 
with the beasts in the grass of the earth ; let his 
heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's 
heart be given unto him; and let seven times 
pass over him." Dan. iv. 15, 16. This is a ver- 
bal prediction of the seven years' insanity of that 
king. So also in the second chapter of Daniel, 
at the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth verses, a pro- 
phecy is given through the medium of symbols. 
The verbs are all in the past tense ; the words are 
all used in their primary import; and the only 
figure is a simile, in which the broken image is 
compared to the real and literal chaff of the 
summer threshing-flSors : " Thou sawest till that 
a stone was cut out without hands, which smote 
the image upon his feet, that were of iron and 
clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the 
iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, 
broken to pieces together, and became like the 
chaff of the summer threshing-floors ; and the 
wind earned them away, that no place was found 



12 NATURE AND OFFICE 

for them ; and the stone that smote the image 
became a great mountain, and filled the whole 
earth." In verse forty-fourth, however, where 
we have an inspired explanation of the foregoing 
prophecy, the same events are predicted through 
the medium of language : " And in the days of 
these kings," that is, those who are symbolized 
by the ten toes, " shall the God of heaven set up 
a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed : and 
the kingdom shall not be left to other people, 
but it shall break in pieces and consume all these 
kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." 

Sometimes there are verbal statements respect- 
ing the future, in connexion with prophetic sym- 
bols ; as for example, in Rev. xxi. 24, " And the 
nations of them which are saved shall walk in 
the light of it," the New Jerusalem. Here the 
verb " shall walk" is in the future tense, and 
therefore cannot be descriptive of a past symboli- 
2ation y although the New Jerusalem is a symbol, 
and one which had been exhibited to the beloved 
disciple in the scenic representation mentioned 
in verses 10-23. As the Lamb is the light of the 
jSTew Jerusalem, verse twenty-third, the meaning 
of this prediction is, that these nations shall be 
guided by the light which Christ gives to those 
who are denoted by that symbol city — a city 



OF PROPHETIC SYMBOLS. 13 

which, according to verses 9, 10, represents the 
same class of persons as " the Bride, the Lamb's 
wife.* 

Let us next observe the marks by which sym- 
bolic PROPHECIES ARE DISTINGUISHABLE FROM THOSE 
OF WHICH LANGUAGE IS THE MEDIUM. 

The symbolic prophecies are easily distin- 
guished by the fact that the representative agents 
or objects were apparently cognizable, either na- 
turally, or in dreams, or in ecstatic visions, by 
some one or more of the bodily senses / that is, 
the persons to whom the revelation was symboli- 
cally made, seemed to themselves to see, hear, 
touch, or taste such agents or objects ; and the 
language descriptive of such a symbolization, in- 
stead of pointing to the future, speaks of the 
past, namely, of the scenic representation which 
had been perceptible in the dream, or vision, or 
otherwise. Nebuchadnezzar, for instance, saw, 
in his dream, a great image which was made of 
diverse materials, and which was dashed in 
pieces by a stone that struck it on the feet. 
Dan. ii. 31-36. St. John, in the sublime visions 
at Patmos, saw a seven-headed and ten-horned 
beast rising from the sea, Rev. xiii. 1 ; and heard 

* See the passage explained more particularly in the eleventh 
chapter of this essay, under the seventh result. 



14 NATURE AND OFFICE 

seven thunders, and touched and tasted a little, 
book, which was sweet in his month, bnt bitter 
in his stomach, Rev. x. 3, 4, 8-10. These are 
evidently symbolic prophecies. In the seventh 
chapter of the book of Daniel, and at the seventh 
verse, the prophet says : " After this I saw in the 
night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dread- 
ful, and terrible, and strong exceedingly ; and it 
had great iron teeth ; it devoured, and brake in 
pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of 
it ; and it was diverse from all the beasts that 
were before it ; and it had ten horns." There is 
no difficulty in distinguishing this also as a sym- 
bolic prophecy. The language simply describes 
what Daniel saw, and the prediction is made 
through the medium of the symbols. The 
" fourth beast," according to the inspired inter- 
pretation, verse twenty-third, represented a fourth 
ruling dynasty, which was to be celebrated for 
its irresistible prowess and universal dominion.* 
On the other hand, when Zechariah says : " The 
Lord shall be king over all the earth," Zech. xiv. 
9 ; or when Christ says : " They (the Jews) shall 
fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led 

* In the parallel dream, Dan. ii., the great strength of the 
fourth dynasty was shown by the iron in the image, Dan. ii. 
83, 40. 



OF PROPHETIC SYMBOLS. 15 

away captive into all nations ; and Jerusalem 
shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the 
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," Luke xxi. 24, 
the prediction is wholly in the language ; for 
that language, instead of oeing descriptive of any 
symbolization, points exclusively to unsymbolic 
events, vMch were then future, In all such pro- 
phecies the verbs are commonly in the future 
tense, though occasionally, for the sake of in- 
creased vividness, the present or the past is used 
for the future. But this is where the general 
strain of the prophecy shows that a future event 
is spoken of, and thus furnishes us with the 
means of avoiding a false interpretation. 

Examples might be multiplied to a very great 
extent, illustrative of the difference between 
symbolic and verbal prophecy, that is, between 
prophecy given through the medium of repre- 
sentative agents and objects, and prophecy given 
through the medium of language; but those 
which have been already adduced will be suffi- 
cient to enable the reader to discriminate be- 
tween the one class and the other. 



CHAPTEK II. 

Classification of the symbols — principle on which symbols 
are employed. 

The symbols maj be divided into five classes :* 
I. Living conscious agents. 

II. Dead bodies. 

III. Natural unconscious agents or objects. 
IY. Artificial objects. 

Y. Acts, effects, characteristics, conditions, 

AND RELATIONS OF AGENTS AND OBJECTS, 

together with the chronological periods 
during which certain representative 
events take place, or a specified agency 
is exerted, or effects endured by the 
symbolical subjects of such agency. 
"We shall mention some examples under each 
of these classes, and refer to passages of Scrip* 
ture where they may be found. 
I. Living conscious agents. 

1. Divine. 

2. Created beings. 

* Theological and Literary Journal, edited by David K 
Lord, New York. Number for April, 1851, p. 668. 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE SYMBOLS. 17 

1. Divine: as 

God (the Father), Rev. iv. 2, 3; v. 1 ; xi. 16, 17; 
xix. 4, called the Ancient of Days, Dan. vii. 9, 13. 
The Son of God called, in Rev. vi. 1, 16, the 
Lamb, and in Rev. xix. 13, the Word of God, 
and in Dan. vii. 13, Rev. i. 13, one like a son of 
man. (See the Chaldee and Greek.) 

2. Created beings. 
(1.) Intelligent. 
(2.) Unintelligent. 

(1.) Intelligent created beings : as 

(a.) Living creatures, £wa, Rev. iv. 6, 8, 9. 

(b.) Angels, Rev. xii. 7. 

(c.) Satan or the Devil, Rev. xii. 9, 12; xx. 2, 10. 

(d.) Unclean spirits, or spirits of demons, Rev. xvi. 
13, 14; fallen angels, Rev. xii. 9. 

(e.) Souls, Rev. vi. 9. 

(f.) Human beings in the natural life, as the pro- 
phet Ezekiel, Ezek. iv. and v.; the prophet 
Isaiah, Is. xx. 2-4, and the apostle John, Rev. 
x. 8-11, xi. 1, 2. 

(g.) Risen and glorified saints sitting upon thrones, 
Rev. xx. 4 ; clothed in fine linen and riding upon 
white horses, Rev. xix. 14. 

(h.) The unholy raised from death, Rev. xx. 15. 

(2.) Unintelligent created beings : as 

(a.) Beasts, such as the bear, Dan. vii. 5 ; the ram, 

Dan. viii. 3, 4, 6, 7 ; the goat, Dan. viii. 5-8. 
(b.) Monster animals, such as the winged leopard 
with four heads, Dan. vii. 6; the ten-horned 
beast with iron teeth, and nails or claws of 



18 CLASSIFICATION OF- THE SYMBOLS. 

brass, Dan. vii. 7, 19; the dragon with seven 
heads and ten horns, Rev. xii. 3. 
(c.) Monster insects, the locusts of the fifth trum- 
pet, which had shapes like horses, faces like the 
faces of men, hair like the hair of women, teeth 
like the teeth of lions, and tails like those of 
scorpions, with stings in their tails, Rev. ix. 7, 
8, 10. 

II. Dead bodies : as 

The slain witnesses, Rev. xi. 8-11. 

III. Natural unconscious agents or objects, as 

The earth, Rev. xii. 16; the sun, moon, and 
stars, Rev. viii. 12 ; waters, Rev. xvii. 15 ; a 
burning mountain, Rev. viii. 8 ; the stone that 
smote the image, Dan. iii. 34, 35 ; a tree, Dan. 
iv. 10-12. 

IY. Artificial objects, as 

An image, Dan. ii. 31-33; candlesticks, Zech. 
iv. 2, 3, 11 ; Rev. i. 12, 13, 20 ; xi. 4 ; a sword, 
Rev. i. 16; vi. 4; xix. 15, 21; cities, such as 
the great city Babylon, Rev. xvi. 19; and the 
Holy City, New Jerusalem, Rev. xxi. 2, 10; 
a crown, <jW$owos (the badge of victory), Rev. 
iv. 10; vi. 2; ix. 7; xii. 1 ; xiv. 14; diadems, 
8ta8ri/xata (the token of dominion), Rev. xii. 
3; xiii. 1; xix. 12; books, Dan. vii. 10; Rev. 
v. 1-5, 7-9; x. 2, 8, 9, 10; xx. 12, 15; white 
robes, Rev. vi. 11; vii. 9, 13, 14; fine linen, 
clean and white, Rev. xix. 8, 14. 

Y. Acts, effects, characteristics, conditions, 

AND RELATIONS OF AGENTS AND OBJECTS, as 

Speaking, Dan. vii. 8 ; fighting, Dan. viii. 7 ; 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE SYMBOLS. 19 

Rev. xii. 7 ; being broken to pieces, Dan. ii. 35; 
ferocity and strength, Dan. vii. 7 : heat, Rev. 
xvi. 9; magnificence and height, Dan. iv. 11, 
12; direction, Dan. viii. 4, 5. 

To which may be added chronological periods 
during which certain representative events take 
place, or a specified agency is exerted by the 
representative agents, or effects endured by the 
symbolical subjects of such agency ; as the three 
hundred and ninety days during which Ezekiel 
was to lie on his side for the iniquity of the house 
of Israel, the forty days during which he was to 
do the same thing for that of the house of Judah, 
" each day for a year," Ezek. iv. 5, 6 ; the forty- 
two months during which the wild beast from 
the sea was to exert his characteristic agency, 
Rev. xiii. 5 ; the twelve hundred and sixty days 
during which the witnesses were to prophesy in 
sackcloth, Eev. xi. 3, previous to their slaughter 
by the beast from the abyss ; and the one thou- 
sand years during which Satan was to remain 
bound and shut up in the abyss, Rev. xx. 2, 3. 

The above is, substantially, the classification 
advocated by Mr. Lord in the Theological and 
Literary Journal, and it is demonstrably correct, 
for all the kinds of symbols included in this dis- 
tribution are found in the sacred Scriptures, and 



20 THE PRINCIPLE ON WHICH 

there can be no other than such as these, namely, 
" divine and created ; intelligent and unintelli- 
gent ; living and inanimate ; natural and artifi- 
cial ; real and visionary ; proper and mon- 
strous;" together with their acts, effects, cha- 
racteristics, conditions, relations, and chronologi- 
cal periods. 

We come next to unfold the principle on 

WHICH SYMBOLS ARE EMPLOYED, and to expound 

their laws. 

If we recur to the symbols which are explain- 
ed in holy writ, we shall find that in every 
instance where the symbol and that which it 
represents are of a different class, species, or 
order, they are employed on the principle of 
analogy or resemblance. For example, there is 
an obvious analogy between a lofty and wide- 
spreading tree which affords shelter to the fowls 
of the air, and shade to the beasts of the field, 
and an illustrious and powerful monarch who 
gives protection to his subjects and extends his 
sway over the earth, Dan. iv. 10-27 ; between 
a ferocious wild beast which tramples on other 
animals, and an aggressive 'dynasty of rulers 
who exert a corresponding agency towards their 
adversaries. Dan., vii. 7, 17, 23. In such ex- 
amples the resemblance is only partial, as a tree 



SYMBOLS AKE EMPLOYED. 21 

is not literally a monarch ; nor a beast a man. 
On the other hand there is, in many instances, a 
much closer likeness between the symbol and 
the thing symbolized, as where men in the 
natural life represent such men, and persons 
raised from death denote such persons, and in 
general where the symbolic agents and objects 
which appeared in the visions represent agents 
and objects of the same kind or order. This we 
shall have occasion to show in treating of the 

LAWS OF SYMBOLIZATION. 



CHAPTEE III. 

Seven laws of symbolization — discussion of the first law. 

I. "The First Law: The symbol and that 
which it represents resemble each other in the 
station they fill, the relation they sustain, and 
the agencies they exert in their respective 
spheres." 

II. " The Second Law : The representative 
and that which it represents, while the counter- 
part of each other, are of different species, kinds, 
or rank, in all cases where the symbol is of such 
a nature, or is used in such a relation, that it 
can properly symbolize something different from 
itself." 

III. " The Third Law : Symbols that are of 
such a nature, station, or relation, that there is 
nothing of an analogous kind that they can 
represent, symbolize agents, objects, acts, or 
events of their own kind." 

IY. "The Fourth Law: When the symbol 
and that which it symbolizes differ from each 
other, the correspondence between the repre- 



LAWS OF SYMBOLIZATKXST. 23 

sentative and that which it represents still ex- 
tends to their chief parts ; and the general ele- 
ments or parts of the symbol denote correspond- 
ing, parts in that which is symbolized." 

Y. " The Fifth Law : The names of symbols 
are their literal and proper names." 

YI. "The Sixth Law: A single agent, in 
many instances, symbolizes a body and succes- 
sion of agents." 

To these six laws of symbolization enumerated 
by the editor of the Theological and Literary 
Journal in the number for April, 1851, may be 
added for the, sake of perspicuity, a seventh, 
though it is perhaps comprehended in the first. 

YII. The Seventh Law : The periods of 
time during which a representative agent per- 
forms certain representative acts, symbolize the 
periods during which the agents denoted by the 
symbols perform the corresponding acts : and, 
in all cases where such an interpretation is not 
contrary to analogy, days symbolize years. 

The main question at issue, and which it is 
proposed to settle by this discussion, is, whether 
these laws are implied in the inspired interpre- 
tations of symbols : and to determine that point 
we must appeal to the Scriptures themselves, 
and enter upon a fair and candid examination 



24 THE FIRST LAW 

of their contents on the topic before us. It will 
thus be seen that the above-mentioned laws are 
all susceptible of a complete demonstration. 

I. "The First Law: The symbol and that 
which it represents resemble each other in the 
station they Jill, the relation they sustain, and 
the agencies they exert in their respective spheres" 

" This is true universally, whether the symbol 
is employed on the principle of a partial resem- 
blance, or of an exact likeness. Thus an agent 
symbolizes an agent ; an object of agency repre- 
sents an object of agency ; an act denotes an 
act ; an effect foreshows an effect ; an office, 
condition, or characteristic" of the symbol, " an 
office, condition, or characteristic" of the thing 
symbolized. " A living agent symbolizes a liv- 
ing agent; a conquering agent denotes a con- 
quering one ; a destroying . . one represents 
a destroyer." 

Thus the prophet Ezekiel, in performing cer- 
tain symbolic acts enjoined upon him, was a 
symbol of Israel ; and in certain others also en- 
joined upon him, a symbol of Judah. The di- 
rection which the Lord gives him is this : " Lie 
thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity 



OF SYMB0LIZATI0N. 25 

of the house of Israel upon it : according to the 
number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, 
thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid 
upon thee the years of their iniquity, according 
to the number of the days, three hundred and 
ninety days : so shalt thou bear the iniquity of 
the house of Israel. And when thou hast ac- 
complished them, lie again on thy right side, and 
thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Ju- 
dah forty days : I have appointed thee each day 
for a year." Ezek. iv. 4-6. Here Ezekiel, who 
was himself a living agent, represented the people 
of Israel and Judah, who were also living agents. 
In Daniel viL 3-7, the four great beasts which 
were living agents, represented four ruling dy- 
nasties, which were also living agents. The fol- 
lowing is the inspired interpretation : " These 
great beasts which are four, are four kings," 
verse 17, that is, they symbolize or represent 
four kings, or ruling dynasties. So also in the 
eighth chapter, the ram with two horns, and the 
he-goat with the great horn between his eyes, 
themselves living agents, are explained as sym- 
bolizing living agents ; namely, on the one hand, 
the Medo-Persian dynasty, and on the other, the 
Grecian. " The ram which thou sawest having 
two horns, are the kings of Media and Persia. 
2 



26 THE FIRST LAW 

And the rough goat is the king of Grecia." 
Dan. viii. 20, 21. In Zechariah vi. 12, the high 
priest Joshua, the son of Josedech, a living agent, 
is a symbol of the man Christ Jesus, that is, of 
the Saviour in his human nature, though not a 
symbol of him in his godhead, which, as is evi- 
dent from Rev. v., no created agent would be 
adequate to represent. "Take silver and gold 
and make crowns, and set them upon the head 
of Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, 
and speak unto him, saying : Thus speaketh 
the Lord of Hosts, saying, Behold the man whose 
name is the branch." Zech. vi. 11, 12. The 
term ' branch ' is here used as a proper name of 
the man Christ Jesus, with reference to his con- 
nexion with the stock of David, as is evident 
from Jer. xxiii. 5 : " Behold the days come, saith 
the Lord, that I will raise unto David a right- 
eous Branch, and a King shall reign and pros- 
per, and shall execute justice in the earth." The 
seven-headed and ten-horned dragon and wild 
beast, themselves living agents, symbolized liv- 
ing agents ; the seven heads, according to the in- 
spired interpretation, representing "seven kings," 
or lines of chiefs, of whom, in St. John's time, 
five had already fallen; and the ten horns, " ten 
kings," or governors, w T hich were afterwards to 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 27 

arise. " There are seven kings ; five are fallen, 
and one is, and the other is not yet come, and 
when he cometh, he must continue a short space. 

. . . And the ten horns which thou sawest 
are ten kings which have received no kingdom 
as yet." Kev. xvii. 10, 12. 

The inspired interpretation of what was sym- 
bolized by the fourth beast, Dan. vii., is another 
proof of the truth of this law. According to 
that interpretation, those who were symbolized 
"by that beast were, in their sphere, to exert an 
agency resembling that which the beast did in 
his. " After this I saw in the night visions, and 
behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and 
strong exceedingly ; and it had great iron teeth ; 
it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the 
residue with the feet of it : and it was diverse from 
all the beasts that were before it ; and it had ten 
horns." Dan. vii. 7. Such was the symboliza- 
tion — such the agency of this beast as seen in 
the vision. Now observe with what exactness 
the inspired interpretation sustains the law that 
we are considering. As the fourth beast was a 
living agent, so were the rulers which that beast 
symbolized ; for it is said of all the four beasts, 
"These great beasts which are four, are four 
kings," Dan. vii. IT; and again, "The fourth 



28 THE FIRST LAW 

beast sliall "be the fourth kingdom upon earth, 
which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and 
shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread 
down and break it in pieces." Dan. vii. 23. As 
the fourth beast was diverse from the others, so 
the fourth ruling dynasty which that beast sym- 
bolized, was to be diverse from the others ; and 
as the fourth beast trampled down and brake in 
pieces the others, and was an all-conquering 
beast, so the dynasty or line of rulers which it 
symbolized, was to trample down and break in 
pieces the others, and to be an all-conquering 
dynasty. How perfectly, therefore, is the law 
verified by the inspired interpretation. In all 
these examples living agents represent living 
agents, and so in all the interpreted symbols of 
the Hebrew prophets. 

The dream of Pharaoh, concerning the seven 
fat and the seven lean kine, is an exception to 
the general principle, that living agents repre- 
sent living agents ; but inasmuch as it is ex- 
plained in the Scriptures, it presents no practical 
embarrassment; and being in accordance with 
the arbitrary hieroglyphics among the Egyp- 
tians, and thus far, according to the ordering of 
God's providence, taking its complexion, per- 
haps, from the monarch's waking thoughts, it is 



OF SYMBOLIZATTON. 29 

not to be considered as setting aside the laws 
which govern the interpretation of the symboli- 
cal image and stone, Dan. ii., and the symboli- 
cal tree, Dan. iv., or the symbols which were 
perceptible naturally, and used by the Hebrew 
prophets under the Lord's direction, or those 
which were exhibited to them in dream or vi- 
sion. 

Afirain : while living agents in all such cases 
never symbolize inanimate objects, it is equally 
true that in many instances, inanimate objects 
that act or exert agencies, clo represent — on the 
principle of general resemblance or analogy — 
living agents. The one exert in their sphere an 
agency analogous to that which the others exert 
in theirs. Thus, in Rev. i. 20, the seven candle- 
sticks, or lamp-stands, symbolize seven churches, 
assemblies, or congregations of living men, 
IxxAveuu ; and the seven stars, seven messengers 
of the churches. A candlestick or lamp-stand 
supporting a lamp which gives light in the circle 
around it, is an appropriate symbol of a church or 
congregation of worshippers, which supports a 
religious teacher who sheds the light of divine 
truth in the circle of his ministrations. The stars, 
on the same principle of analogy, are suitable em- 
blems of sacred messengers, ministers of the gos- 



I 



30 THE FIRST LAW 

pel commissioned by God, and sent by the 
churches to preach the word and administer 
religious instruction, warning, or consolation. 
The term uyysXog being here used in the same 
connexion with IxxaW*, the one as an explana- 
tion of what is denoted by the stars, and the 
other of what is meant by the candlesticks, is 
doubtless to be taken in its primary import of 
messenger, and not in the secondary import of 
angel, a being belonging to a rank of intelligen- 
ces superior to man, and deriving this name from 
his office. The stone from the mountain, Dan. 
ii. 34, 45, which smote the image on the feet, 
and brake it in pieces, is explained in the con- 
text, as denoting the kings whom God is to es- 
tablish in his kingdom, and who, in demolishing 
the dynasties represented by the ten toes, are to 
exert in their sphere an agency analogous to that 
which in its corresponding sphere was exerted 
by the stone. " In the days of these kings shall 
the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall 
never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not 
be left to other people, but it shall break in 
pieces, and consume all these kingdoms, and it 
shall stand for ever." Dan. ii. 44. The stone 
strikes the image on the feet, and of course on 
the ten toes, and crushes it : the meaning of 



OF BYMBOLIZATION. 31 

which is, that those whom the stone symbolizes, 
are at the time appointed, to wit, at an epoch 
subsequent to the division of the fourth great 
monarchy into ten kingdoms, to overturn with 
resistless might, and utterly demolish the oppos- 
ing dynasties, and establish their own everlasting 
kingdom upon the wreck and ruin of these an- 
tagonistic sovereignties ; just as the stone, with 
great violence and overwhelming force, utterly 
broke in pieces the symbolic image, which " be- 
came like the chaff of the summer threshing- 
floors," and was carried away by the wind, 
u that no place was found for " it. Dan. ii. 35. 
That what was thus true of the symbol is also true 
of the dynasty which it represented, is clearly indi- 
cated in the inspired interpretation, by the words, 
" hredk in pieces" and " consume" Dan. ii. 44 ; 
which denote, in this connexion, not reformation, 
but destruction. Similar language had just be- 
fore been used, Dan. ii. 40, to signify the crush- 
ing force with which the dynasty represented in 
that chapter by the iron and clay, and in the 
seventh by the fourth beast, was to overwhelm 
its opponents ; and here also it must have the 
same meaning. 

From these inspired interpretations it is evi- 
dent that an object of agency denotes such an 



32 THE FIRST LAW 

object, and an effect in the symbol foreshows a 
like effect in the thing symbolized. Thus the 
image, which was dashed to pieces by the stone, 
represented the dynasties which are to be des- 
troyed by those whom the stone symbolizes. 
The agency of the stone foreshowed the analo- 
gous agency of the corresponding dynasty ; and 
the effect produced by the one, the analogous 
effect which is to be accomplished by the other. 
So the act of the fourth beast in trampling down 
and devouring other animals signified that of the 
symbolized rulers in crushing and destroying 
their antagonists : and the slaying of that beast 
and the burning of its body denoted the utter 
destruction of those whom the beast represented. 
We have thus proved the first law by the 
symbolic agency of the prophet Ezekiel, Ezek. 
iv., and that of Joshua the son of Josedech the 
high priest, Zech. vi., by the four great beasts, 
Dan. vii., the ram with the two horns, Dan. viii., 
the seven-headed and ten-horned dragon and 
wild beast, Rev. xii. xvii., the seven candlesticks 
and seven stars, Rev. i., and the stone and the 
image, Dan. ii. We have therefore, in these 
inspired interpretations, contained in the word 
of God, the most complete demonstration of the 
truth of the law — -that the symbol and that which 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 33 

it represents resemble each other in the station 
they fill, the relation they sustain, and the agen- 
cies they exert in their respective spheres. 



CHAPTEE IY. 

Discussion of the second law, 

II. " The Second Law : The representative and 
that which it represents, vjhile the counterpart 
of each other, are of different spheres, hinds, or 
raiik, in all cases where the symbol is of such a 
nature, or is used in such a relation, that it can 
properly symbolize something different from it- 
self:'' 1 — or, in other words, the symbol, where the 
nature of the case admits, is of a different class 
or order from that which is symbolized, as, for 
example, a beast is of a different order from a 
hing / a military or political chieftain, in his 
appropriate sphere, as such, is of a different 
order, class, or rank, from an ecclesiastical ruler : 
but in these cases the analogy between the sym- 
bol and that which it represents is always pre- 
served. 

Thus the ram and the he-goat, Dan. viii., 
according to the inspired interpretation, did not 
symbolize a herd or succession of rams and he- 
goats; but these animals, leaders of their re- 



THE SECOXD LAW. 35 

spective flocks and antagonists of each, other, 
symbolize agents of a different order, namely, 
not brutes but men, chieftains who contended 
the one against the other, in a manner analogous 
to that exhibited in the symbols. So in the 
great image, Dan. ii., the head of gold, according 
to the inspired interpretation, did not symbolize 
a collection of metallic heads, but objects of a 
different kind, to wit, a dynasty of men who 
were to be succeeded by other dynasties of men 
represented by the other parts of the image. 
The four beasts, Dan. vii., according to the in- 
spired interpretation, did not denote a herd or 
succession of beasts, but agents of a different 
order, namely, aggressive dynasties of civil rulers, 
who in their sphere were the counterpart of what 
the wild beasts were in theirs. The waters, 
Rev. xvii. 15, according to the inspired interpre- 
tation, did not symbolize a collection of waters, 
but a vast multitude of people belonging to 
different nations and speaking different lan- 
guages. " The waters which thou sawest, where 
the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, 
and nations, and tongues." The seven candle- 
sticks and seven stars, Rev. i. 12, 16, 20, accord- 
ing to the inspired interpretation, did not repre- 
sent a collection of candlesticks and stars, but 



36 THE SECOND LAW 

churches or congregations of men, and reli- 
gious teachers who were the messengers of the 
churches. " The seven stars are the messen- 
gers of the seven churches : and the seven 
candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven 
churches," Eev. i. 20. Michael and his angels 
warring in the sky with Satan* and his angels, 
Rev. xii. 7-9, do not symbolize beings of the 
angelic order, but those of a different order, to 
wit, living men of the epoch denoted, that is, 
believers in Christ on the one hand and hostile 
pagans on the other. This is evident from verse 
tenth, where persons of the human species, repre- 
senting those who had been symbolized by vic- 
torious Michael and his angels, are introduced 
in vision, according to the next law which we 
shall notice, and exhibited as saying — " Now is 
come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom 
of our God, and the power of his Christ : for the 

* Satan r the fallen angel, who is called the dragon, that old 
serpent the Devil; and who is used as a symbol in verses 7-9, 
must not be confounded with the great red dragon having 
seven heads and ten horns, with diadems on the heads, a 
monster having only a visionary existence, who is used as a 
symbol in verse B, and who represents the civil rulers of the 
Koman empire antecedently to its division into ten kingdoms, 
and, after that division, the civil rulers of the Eastern or 
Grseco-Roman empire. 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 37 

accuser of our brethren is cast down, which 
accused them before our God day and night :" 
and then follows the statement — "and they 
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and 
by the word of their testimony ; and they loved 
not their lives unto the death," verse 11. This 
clearly shows that those who had been symbol- 
ized in verses 7-9, were not of the same order as 
Michael and Satan, but of a different order ; not 
angels, hut men : for the latter and not the former 
are subject to death, and become victorious 
through the blood of Christ. Heb. ii. 15, 16. 
These examples from Scripture with the inspired 
interpretations conclusively show that, under the 
condition specified in the law, the symbol is 
always of a different kind or order from that 
which is symbolized : and that there is an ana- 
logy between the one and the other has already 
been proved in the discussion of the first law. 

Tl|ere are cases in which any other construc- 
tion is utterly impossible, consistently with the 
truth of the prophecy. Take one instance as a 
sample of the rest. In Rev. xii. 3, 4, the sym- 
bolic representation is — " And there appeared 
another wonder in heaven ; and behold a great 
red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, 
and seven diadems, IM^r^ upon his heads. ' 



3S THE SECOND LAW 

And his tail drew the third part of the stars of 
heaven, and did cast them to the earth." Xo 
one supposes that these symbols are to be verified 
in any real literal dragon of this description, of 
snch gigantic size and force as literally to sweep 
down with his tail a third of the stars from the 
sky to the earth. Such a supposition would be 
absurd and incredible. They denote therefore 
analogous agents of a different order. We might 
examine in like manner other symbols of the 
Apocalypse, and show the same thing in regard 
to them which is manifest at once in regard to 
the example just cited. 

Hence this law refutes the erroneous interpre- 
tations which have extensively prevailed with 
respect to the first four seals. Rev. vi. 1-8. The 
symbolic horsemen of those seals are evidently 
taken from military and political life, and they 
have frequently been regarded as representing 
classes of persons of the same order as the sym- 
bols. But according to the law that we have 
just demonstrated, the agents thus represented 
are not of the same, but of a different order. 
We are therefore to look for them not in the 
military and political, but in the religious world. 
Hence the warrior of the first seal who carries a 
bow and wears a crown, we'?***, the badge of 



OF SYMBOLIZATIOaS". 39 

victory, and rides upon a white horse, symbol- 
izes faithful and successful ministers of the gos- 
pel. The age immediately following that of the 
apostles was distinguished for ministers who 
gloried in winning trophies for Christ, and con- 
verting their fellow-men to the knowledge of the 
truth: and these and their successors of like 
character were represented by the symbolic 
horseman of the first seal, the rider on the white 
horse, who " went forth conquering and to con- 
quer." Rev. vi. 2. But in the subsequent 
ages other clergy arose of very different charac- 
ter and doings — " the ambitious and contentious, 
who usurped an unauthorized dominion over the 
church, and distracted and wasted it by strifes 
and misrule," — also " the unfaithful and treache- 
rous, who perverted their office to the suppression 
and adulteration of the truth, and reduced their 
flocks to famine and misery :" — and lastly, those 
who " introduced new objects of homage, a new 
worship and new conditions of pardon, rendered 
their teachings a moral pestilence that taints 
and kills all who fall under its power, and made 
... the civil rulers . . . their instru- 
ments in the work of destruction."* And these 

* Lord's Exposition of the Apocalypse, pp. 152, 153. 



40 THE SECOND LAW 

ministers and their successors of similar disposi- 
tion and conduct are represented by the sym- 
bolic horsemen of the second, third, and fourth 
seals, the riders on the red, black, and pale 
horses. Rev. vi. 4, 5, 8. 

It may be thought at the first view, that the 
four symbol horses are exceptions to the general 
law, that living agents denote living agents. If 
that be so, the exception in each case relates to the 
subordinate part of a complex symbol, and must 
be treated accordingly, as necessary to exhibit 
the symbol riders in the attitude of military or 
civil officers who, as we have just explained, are 
employed in the vision to represent leaders of a 
different order, to wit, ministers of religion. But 
it cannot be shown that the four horses are ex- 
ceptions to the general law.* The horses were 
of course auxiliaries to their respective riders, 
and therefore, for aught that appears to the con- 
trary, may symbolize the men who sustained an 

* Mr. Cuninghame, in expounding the first seal, says : " The 
rider on the horse may be understood to signify the rulers or 
ministers, and the horse the body of the church." — Cuning- 
hame on the Apocalypse, pp. 5, 6. London, 1832, Third Edi- 
tion. 

The symbolic horsemen of the second, third, and fourth seals 
also, he considers as representing ecclesiastical rulers. — lb., pp. 
7-19. 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 41 

analogous relation to the ministers represented 
by those riders : — just as the ten-horned beast in 
the seventeenth chapter symbolizes the auxiliaries 
of those who are represented by the harlot sorce- 
ress that rode on that beast : — living agents de- 
noting living agents, and where the nature of the 
case admits, those of a different order or kind. 

From what has been already said, it is abun- 
dantly evident — and the truth of the remark will 
be more fully exemplified as we proceed — that 
there are definite principles of interpretation 
clearly implied in the inspired volume, which 
should govern the exposition of prophetic sym- 
bols; and therefore this whole subject, instead 
of being, as many suppose, vague, uncertain, and 
indeterminate, is controlled by well established 
laws ; and God's word in all its parts, the sym- 
bol] c as well as the unsymbolic, contains what is 
properly called a revelation, or disclosure of the 
high counsels of heaven in regard to the condi- 
tion and prospects of men. 

The second law, therefore, of prophetic sym- 
bols, as well as the first, we have fully verified 
by the inspired interpretations. "We have proved 
it by a reference to the ram and the he-goat, 
Dan. viii. ; the great image, Dan. ii. ; the four 
beasts, Dan. vii. ; the waters, Kev v xvii. ; the 



42 THE SECOND LAW. 

seven candlesticks and the seven stars, Rev. i. ; 
Michael and his angels, and Satan and the fallen 
angels, and the great red dragon, Rev. xii. ; and 
illustrated its utility by an application of it to 
the first four seals, Rev. vi. The law, therefore, 
has been not merely exhibited, but fully demon- 
strated by the authority of God's sacred word, 
agreeably to the line of argument and discussion 
which we proposed to adopt in this essay ; and 
therefore it may be regarded as a revealed prin- 
ciple or law, that the representative and that 
which it represents, while the counterpart of each 
other, are of different spheres, hinds, or rank, in 
all cases, where the symbol is of such a nature, 
or is used in such a relation, that it can properly 
symbolize something different from itself. 



CHAPTER Y. 

Discussion of thk third law. 

III. " The Third Law : Symbols that are of 
such a nature, station, or relation, that there is 
nothing of an analogous kind that they can re- 
present, symbolize agents, objects, acts, or events 
of their own kind" 

Thus in Rev. v., the Lamb, the incarnate Son 
of God, appears in the vision as his own repre- 
sentative, because in respect to his deity in union 
with humanity, and the peculiar relations which 
he sustains, and acts which he performs as a di- 
vine person, he could not properly be represent- 
ed by any created agent. The terms, " Lamb" 
" Lion of the tribe of Judah," " Hoot of David," 
are here used as Proper Names of the Son of 
God. That these are appropriate denominatives 
of the Messiah, will not be questioned, and that 
Jesus Christ himself is the Lamb here spoken of, 
is evident from the context, where it is said : 
"And he came and took the book out of the 
right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And 



44 THE THIRD LAW 

when he had taken the book, the four living 
creatures, £«*, and four-and-twenty elders fell 
down before the Lamb, having every one of them 
harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are 
the prayers of saints. And they sang a new song, 
saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to 
open the seals thereof ; for thou wast slain, and 
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of 
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and na- 
tion ; and hast made us unto our God kings and 
priests ; and we shall reign on the earth." Rev. 
v. 7-10. ISTone but Jesus- Christ has performed 
the work of redemption, and to none but him 
would such a song be applicable. None but a 
divine person could rightly be associated with 
God the Father in such an ascription of praise 
as that in verse 13th : " Blessing, and honor, and 
glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon 
the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." 
To have paid such adoration* to a mere creature, 

* See the full exhibition of the worship rendered to the 
Lamb, Rev. y. 8-13, and compare Rev. xiv. 1, where God is 
alluded to as the "Father" of the Lamb: "And I looked, 
and lo, the Lamb* stood on the mount Sion, and with him an 
hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name 
written in their foreheads." Surely, the Son of the Father 
must be Christ, the Lamb of God, and not a mere brute animal. 

* The best editions have here, Rev. xiv. 1, rd pviov, the Lamb. 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 45 

whether a lamb or any other animal, would have 
been as much an act of idolatry, as that of the 
children of Israel when they proclaimed a festi- 
val unto Jehovah, and worshipped a golden calf 
as the representative of the great God who had 
brought them up out of the land of Egypt. 
Exod. xxxii. 4, 5, 6, 8. It is no mere created 
agent, therefore, but the almighty and divine 
Redeemer, the risen and glorified Saviou^ who 
is here presented to us as the Lamb whom saints 
and angels worship. The symbolic appendages 
of seven horns and seven eyes, Rev. v. 6, which 
John saw in the vision, were doubtless assumed 
for the occasion, as emblematical of Christ's om- 
nipotent and omnipresent Spirit in its sevenfold 
or complete and entire perfection — the Holy Spi- 
rit of God. 

This epithet, therefore, the " Lamb" is in that 
vision a denominative of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
as it is in Rev. vi. 16, where "the kings of the 
earth" and others "said to the mountains and 
rocks, Fall on us .and hide us from the face of 
him that sitteth on the throne, and from the 
wrath of the Lamb ;" and in Rev. vii. 14, 17, 
where it is said of the white-robed palm-bearers, 
that they have " washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb' 1 '' — and that 



46 THE THIED LAW 

"the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne" 
(compare Rev. v. 6, where the Lamb is spoken 
of as occupying, in that vision, the same posi- 
tion, namely, " in the midst of the throne") — 
" the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne 
shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living 
fountains of waters."* 

The omission of the article in the Greek of 
Rev. v. 6, does not seem, when we examine the 
context, a sufficient reason for the opinion that 
the being whom John saw in the vision was a 
mere brute animal. The Lamb spoken of stood 
by the throne of God, Rev. v. 6 ; he came and 
took the book from the right hand of him who 
sat upon the throne, verse 7th ; he received the 
worship of the heavenly hosts, verse 8th ; and 
the reason assigned in the "new song" why he 
was worthy to take the book and open the seals 

* Compare John i. 29, 35, 36: "The next day John seeth 
Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God 
•which taketh away the sin of the -world." "Again, the next 
day after, John stood, and two of his, disciples; and looking 
upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God" 

There can be no question, therefore, that the term Lamb 
might properly be used in the Apocalypse, as a denominative 
of the Lord Jesus Christ ; and if the Lamb in the midst of the 
throne, as spoken of in Rev. vii. 17, is Christ, so also is the 
Lamb in the midst of the throne, as spoken of in Rev. v. 6. 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 47 

thereof, was beeause lie had been slain, and had 
redeemed them to God by his blood, verse 9th ; 
which shows that Christ was the person ad- 
dressed. The visible indications that Christ the 
Lamb had been slain, Rev. v. 6, consisted, per- 
haps, of the marks on his person, such as the 
print of the nails in his hands and his feet, and 
the impression of the spear in his wounded side, 
marks which, it will be recollected, were visible 
in the resurrection body in which he appeared 
to the disciples, John xx. 27 ; and in which he 
ascended to heaven, Luke xxiv. 39, 40, 51 ; Acts 
i. 9. 

The term Lamb, therefore, in these passages, is 
to be taken as a Proper Name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Lamb that was slain, Rev. xiii. 8. 

In like manner in Eev. xix. 11-21, Christ ap- 
pears as his own representative. This is evident 
from the description there given. He is styled 
" the Word of God," verse 13th, a name which, 
in the first chapter of St. John's gospel, is ap- 
plied to that divine person, the Eternal Son of 
God, who took human nature into union with 
himself. " He hath on his vesture and on his 
thigh a name written, King of Icings and Lord 
of lords" verse 16th ; compare Rev. xvii. 14. 
He has " a sharp sword" proceeding from his 



48 THE THIRD LAW 

month, one of the symbolic badges of the risen 
Saviour, in Rev. i. 16, indicative of the fact that 
his avenging sentence is to result in the destruc- 
tion of his enemies ; " and he treadeth the wine 
press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty 
God," verse 15th. Hence his characteristic as 
an Avenger in that day, is symbolized in verse 
13th, by the raiment in which he is clothed — " a 
vesture dipped in blood." There can be no 
question, therefore, that the Leader of the hea- 
venly armies, Rev. xix. 11-21, is the risen and 
glorified Saviour. He cannot be a mere " per- 
sonification of Christianity." Such an exposi- 
tion is wholly at variance with the symbolization, 
which evidently represents a living agent As 
well might it be said that the ram and the he- 
goat, Dan. viii., are mere personifications of war. 
If the one symbolized " the Icings of Media and 
Persia" Dan. viii. 20, and the other, " the king 
of Greeia" verse 21, as we are expressly told in 
the inspired interpretation of that vision, so this 
celestial Leader is shown, with equal clearness, 
by his name and characteristics, to be the " Kjng 
of kings and Lord of lords" Rev. xix. 16; the 
personal "Word of God," verse 13, the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

F.or a similar reason, namely, because no 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 49 

created agent could properly represent him, God 
the Father also symbolizes himself. 

Thus in Key. iv., the person seated on the 
throne in heaven, verse 2d, and who is distin- 
guished from the Lamb that came to him, Rev. 
v. 7, is evidently God the Father, for he receives 
the adoration of saints and angels, Rev. v. 13, 
and holds in his hand a book, Rev. v. 1, symbol- 
ical of the divine purposes, and written within 
and without to show that those purposes are 
complete and full, a book which none but the 
Lamb can take and open, Rev. v. 2-7, he being 
the Revealer of the counsels o£ the deity. 

In Rev. vii. 9-17, the white-robed palm-bear- 
ers symbolize those victorious believers who come 
out of the great tribulation — tZvl u<nv o\ lf%op.e**t 
ex t£Y bxtyiat, rrit fteyuAvg, literally translated — 
"these are they who come from oft of the 
tribulation the great." Rev. vii. 14, compare 
Dan. xii. 1, Rev. xvi. 18. They are manifestly 
individuals of the human race who are believers 
in Christ, because none but such can be said to 
wash their garments " in the blood of the Lamb," 
verse 14. As the persons indicated are those 
who come out of the great tribulation, they 
can only be those who were once rN it, and are 
therefore believers who, after having lived at 



50 THE THIRD LAW 

the epoch denoted by the vision, and continued 
faithful to their trust in the midst of unprece- 
dented trouble, are to rejoice, as here represent- 
ed, in their ultimate deliverance. They are 
clothed in white robes to show that they are 
accepted before God : and they bear the palm 
in token of victory. They enjoy the beatific 
presence of their God and Saviour, for they are 
" before the throne of God, and serve him day 
and night in his temple : and he that sitteth on 
the throne shall dwell among them. They shall 
hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither 
shall the sun strike them, mry eV uvtw^ nor any 
heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of 
the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them 
unto living fountains of waters : and God shall 
wipe away all tears from their eyes." Rev. vii. 
15-17. In other words, they are to be exempt 
from all evil, to be clothed with immortality, to 
have the most delightful communion with their 
heavenly Father, to receive the visible mani- 
festations of his personal presence, and to be 
for ever with Jesus. The glory of their deliver- 
ance — « rarqgU, "the salvation" — they ascribe 
with adoring gratitude to " God which sitteth 
upon the throne and unto the Lamb," verse 10. 
They are symbolized in the vision by those of 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 51 

their own order, for no others can properly 
represent them as performing the acts and re- 
ceiving the rewards' here specified. 

The spirits of the martyrs nnder the fifth seal 
symbolize such spirits, for disembodied spirits, 
in the intermediate state between death and the 
resurrection, calling upon God for retribution, 
could not appropriately be represented by any 
persons except those of their own order or spe- 
cies. " And when he had opened the fifth seal, 
I saw under the altar the souls of them that were 
slain for the word of God, and for the testimony 
which they held : and they cried with a loud 
voice saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, 
dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on 
them that dwell on the earth? And white 
robes were given unto every one of them ; and 
it was said unto them, that they should rest yet 
for a little season, until their fellow servants also 
and their brethren that should be killed, as they 
were, should be fulfilled," Rev. vi. 9-11. The 
souls here spoken of are departed spirits of good 
men who, at the epoch denoted by the vision, 
had been slain for their fidelity to the truth : 
for they are the souls of those who had suffered 
martyrdom " for the word of God, and for the 
testimony which they held :" they are clothed in 



I 



«o 



THE THIRD LAW 



white robes, which denotes that they are accept- 
ed before God: and the period at which the 
. persons represented ntter the cry is anterior to 
the resurrection, for the symbol spirits are told 
to rest for a little season until the number of 
martyrs should be complete. 

The men spoken of in Rev. vi. 15, 16, also 
symbolize those of their own order, for there 
was no other way to represent individual human 
beings in the natural life performing the acts 
there mentioned. " And the kings of the earth, 
and the great men, and the rich men, and the 
chief captains, and the mighty men, and every 
bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in 
the dens and in the rocks of the mountains ; and 
said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and 
hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the 
throne, and from .the wrath of the Lamb : for the 
great day of his wrath is come ; and who shall 
be able to stand?" Rev. vi. 15-17. 

The witnesses in Rev. xi., represented, for a 
similar reason, persons of their own order. The 
statement in verse 3 is — " I will give* unto my 
two witnesses," (that is, I will bestow upon them 
the gifts requisite for their office and work) " and 

* The word power in the common English- version, Rev. xi 
3, is not in the original Greek. 



OF SYMB0LIZATI0X T . 53 

they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and 
threescore days, clothed in sackcloth ;" that is, 
they shall, in a state of depression and humilia- 
tion, continue to proclaim the truth as it is in 
Jesus throughout that entire period. The wit- 
nesses are explained in verse 4, to represent the 
same as might be symbolized by two olive trees 
and two candlesticks. A candlestick, as we 
learn from Rev. i. 20, is the symbol of a church. 
These " candlesticks," therefore, Rev. xi. 4, de- 
note churches which bear a faithful testimony to 
the truth as it is in Jesus throughout the whole 
period symbolized by the twelve hundred and 
sixty days. Rev. xi. 2, 3. The " olive trees" as 
we learn from Zeeh. iv. 3, 12, 14, denote the 
" anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the 
wdiole earth," that is, priests or ministers of the 
Lord, and, in this connexion, ministers of the 
churches here symbolized. In ancient times 
priests were set apart for their office by being 
anointed with oil, and hence they are called 
" anointed ones." It would be incongruous, 
however, to represent candlesticks and olive 
trees as prophesying or as being slain and rising 
from the dead and ascending to heaven: and 
hence, in order to exhibit them in such relations, 
the followers of Christ here referred to, both 



54 , THE THIRD LAW 

ministers and people, are symbolized by two 
individual men, called witnesses in verse third, 
- oxidi prophets in verse tenth, persons of their own 
species, to whom snch acts and conditions are, in 
all respects, appropriate. 

The "anointed ones" here indicated cannot 
mean the persecuting civil rulers, for these are 
symbolized by the wild beast who makes war 
upon them and slays them ; and they are evi- 
dently persons who testify for Christ ; and 
therefore as the candlesticks would symbolize 
churches, the anointed ones, corresponding to 
the olive trees, must mean ministers, and, doubt- 
less, the ministers of those churches. 

If the number two be interpreted according to 
the use of the number seven in Kev. i. 20, " the 
seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven 
churches," to wit, the seven in pro-consular Asia 
mentioned in a previous verse of the same chap- 
ter, Kev. i. 11, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, 
Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea — ■ 
then two candlesticks, if used as symbols, would 
represent two churches ; and two olive trees 
would indicate two lines or successions of minis- 
ters, namely, the ministers of those two churches : 
and consequently, in that case, the two witness- 
es " would represent two sets of witnesses, the 



OF SYMBOLTZATIOX. 55 

pastors and people of the churches symbolized, 
as already explained. 

If, however, we adopt the opinion that the 
number two is here used simply because two are 
necessary to make out a complete testimony 
(compare Matt, xviii. 16) — as the number seven 
in Rev. v. 6, taken in connexion with the sym- 
bolic horns and eyes, ("seven horns and seven 
eyes, which are the seven spirits of God,") de- 
notes the sevenfold or complete omnipotence and 
omnipresence of the Holy Spirit of the incar- 
nate Deity — if we take this view, the result will 
not vary much from that given above. The two 
witnesses will then represent all the churches of 
faithful believers with their pastors, who, during 
the period symbolized by the twelve hundred 
and sixty days, and in the localities to which the 
prophecy has reference, bear the testimony, and 
exert, in other respects, the agency here fore- 
shown. 

But whether we take the one view or the 

other, we must rank, among the witnesses here 

represented, the church of the "Waldenses or 

VallenseS) a people whose name is derived from 

their residence, and signifies men of the valleys* 

* Some writers have fallen into the error of representing 
them as deriving their name from Peter Waldo. The incor- 



56 THE THIRD LAW 

"The Christian religion which was planted in 
Italy by Paul has ever since been retained in 
the primitive purity of its fundamental doctrine 

. . . in the churches of Piedmont to this 
day."* That line of faithful witnesses exists to 
the present time. The little remnant of the 
martyr race is still flourishing in Sardinia, but — 
regarded with an evil eye by deadly, unrelent- 
ing, and powerful enemies — the way seems pre- 
paring for their final slaughter, f 

The learned Peter Allix, a French Protestant 
divine who flourished in the reign of Louis the 
Fourteenth, and took refuge in England after 
the revocation of the edict of Xantes, in his 

rectness of that opinion has been shown by Allix, Faber, and 
others. See especially the Ecclesiastical History of the An- 
cient Churches of Piedmont by Peter Allix, D.D., chapter xvih\ 
pp. 182, 183, and chapter xix. Oxford ed. 8vo. 1821; and 
Eaber's Ancient Yallenses and Albigenses, pp. 27 1-531. Lon- 
don, 1838. 

* History of the Ancient Christians inhabiting the valleys of 
the Alps, from the works of Jean Paul Perrin and Dr. Bray, 
with illustrative notes from modern historians and theologians, 
published by Griffith and Simon, Philadelphia, 1847. Preface 
to Part iii. p. 275. 

f The liberality of Victor Emanuel, in granting them per- 
mission to build a church edifice in Turin, is no proof that 
hostile powers will suffer them to enjoy a perpetuity of civil 
and religious freedom^ 



OF SYMBOLIZATIOX. 57 

Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches 
of Piedmont, has traced the Waldenses to the 
age immediately succeeding that of the apostles ; 
vindicated the purity of their morals; success- 
fully defended them from the charge of heresy 
and schism ; and shown that they maintained 
their faith until the Keformation :* and if Rome 
inquires of Protestants, where was your church 
before the time of Luther, we answer it was in 
ancient Britain, f in Italy and Gaul, protesting 
against the corruptions of the great Apostacy, its 
faith derived from the apostles and continuing 
to the present time. 

But without enlarging upon the historical ex- 
position, which would take us too far from the 

* The Rev. George Stanley Faber has given a similar vindi- 
cation of these faithful Christians in his work referred to in a 
previous note and entitled — "An Inquiry into the History and 
The^log\ T of the ancient Yallenses and Albjgenses ; as exhibit- 
ing, agreeably to the promises, the perpetuity of the sincere 
church of Christ." London, 1838. His Komish antagonist, 
the acute and learned Bossuet, cuts but a sorry figure in the 
bauds of the Anglican divine. 

f Not only on the continent of Europe but in Britain also, 
as D'Aubigne has shown in the fifth volume of his Histoiy of 
the Reformation, Christ had a church previous to the first 
introduction of popery into that country by the monk Augus- 
tine, A.D. 597, — a church which manfully resisted the usurpa- 
tions of Rome. 

3* 



58 THE THIRD LAW 

main point under discussion, we sum up our re- 
marks upon the question, as to who are symbolized 
by the apocalyptic witnesses, by observing that 
two circumstances are necessary to identify any 
churches and their line of pastors with those wit- 
nesses : first, they must exist throughout the entire 
period symbolized by the twelve hundred and 
sixty days, Rev. xi. 3 ; and next, they must bear 
a fait/fid testimony for Christ during the whole 
of that same period, and in the localities to which 
the prophecy refers. 

But in regard to the reason for using the num- 
ber two in its application to the witnesses, pro- 
phets, candlesticks, and olive trees, Eev. xi. 3, 10, 
4, there is room, perhaps, for difference of opi- 
nion as to whether it be designed to point out 
two collections of churches and their respective 
lines of pastors, or simply intended to indicate 
the fact that the churches and pastors symboliz- 
ed, bear a complete testimony, and constitute a 

COMPLETE CHAIN OF FAITHFUL WITNESSES. 

To return to the third law of symbolization, 
we remark further in its support, that in Eev. xii. 
10, the servants of Christ, who in verse seventh 
had been symbolized by celestial beings, are re- 
presented by some of their own species, because 
it would have been incorrect to speak of Michael 



OF SYMBOLIZATIOX. 59 

and his angels as overcoming by the blood of 
the Lamb, and as loving not their lives nnto the 
death, verse 11th; for angels and archangels are 
neither subject to death, nor redeemed by the 
blood of Christ. 

In Rev. xiii. 4, the men who are exhibited in 
the vision as worshipping the beast, symbolize 
persons of the human species, for those who per- 
form the corresponding acts of idolatrous sub- 
servience to those whom the beast represents, 
could properly be* exhibited in that relation only 
by those of their own kind. To have introduced 
angels, either fallen or unfallen, as engaged in 
worshipping a beast, would have been a need- 
less incongruity, and hence they are not employ- 
ed as the representatives of men in their idolatry 
of civil rulers ; to have used rivers, or fountains, 
or a sea of waters, in that symbolic relation of 
worshippers of a beast, would obviously have 
been impossible : to have exhibited the beast as 
worshipped by other beasts, would have been a 
false symbolization, for the object here is to fore- 
show that a collection of rulers would be wor- 
shipped by the great mass of the population over 
whom they reign, and not that those rulers would 
be worshipped by other rulers ; and therefore the 



60 THE THIRD LAW 

mass of the people are here represented by those 
of their own species. 

The same may be said of the men spoken of 
in Rev. ix. 4, who had not the seal of God in 
their foreheads, and those in verses 20, 21, who 
repented not of their idolatries and other sins. 

The same also of the men who, under the 
scorching effects of the fourth vial, Rev. xvi. 9, 
" Blasphemed the name of God . . . and 
repented not to give him glory.' 7 Blaspheming 
and impenitent men could be properly repre- 
sented in that character only py such men. 

The same may be said of the men who are 
spoken of in connexion with some of the other 
vials, Rev. xvi. 2, 11, 21. 

•In Rev. xvi. 14, " The kings (or rulers) of the 
whole world,"* represent persons of their own 
order. Those persons could not appropriately 
be symbolized by the wild beast, which repre- 
sented only the rulers of a particular part of the 
world ; and in Rev. xix. 19, where the same war 
is spoken of as in Rev. xvi. 14, 16, that to which 

* The best editions of the Greek Testament omit the rfjs yf^ 
teal of the textus receptus, and instead of "the kings of the 
earth and of the whole world," read simply "the kings of the 
whole world? 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 61 

the "three unclean spirits" gathered* those 
kings, we read of " the beast and the kings of 
the earth." The symbolization, therefore, was 
designed to include other rulers besides those de- 
noted by the beast. Neither the beast, nor the 
dragon, nor the false prophet, nor all combined, 
could represent " the kings of the whole world" 
It was therefore necessary that they should be 
their own representatives. 

In Rev. xx. 1-3, the angel who laid hold upon 
Satan, represents good angels ; and Satan, fallen 

* There is an inaccuracy in our common English Version in 
Rev. xvi, 16, which obscures the sense, and which has arisen 
from overlooking the principle of Greek Grammar, that nomi- 
natives plural of the neuter gender have commonly a singular 
verb. The phrase rendered, " And he gathered them," should 
have been translated, "And they gathered them," that is, the 
three unclean spirits gathered them, irvtvuara rpia, in verse 13th, 
being the antecedent of the pronoun in the nominative plural 
neuter understood before the verb cwftyayev, in verse 16th. 
They are spoken of in verse 14th as going forth "unto the 
kings of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that 
great day of God Almighty." In that very verse, Rev. xvi. 
14, there is a similar construction in the original Greek ; 8 
(= which), a pronoun in the neuter plural, nominative to the 
verb UwopcvcTai (= go forth), in the third person singular. The 
15th verse is parenthetical, and the 16th is connected with 
the 14th. The three unclean spirits, therefore, symbolize the 
agents who gather the kings to the war of " Armageddon." 
Rev. xvi. 14, 16. 



62 THE THIRD LAW 

angels. " And I saw an angel come down from 
heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, 
and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold 
on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the 
Devil and Satan, and bonnd him a thousand 
years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and 
shut him up and set a seal upon him, that he 
should deceive the nations no more, till the thou- 
sand years should be fulfilled : and after that he 
must be loosed a little season." 

The person here styled the " dragon, that old 
serpent which is the Devil and Satan," is not the 
red dragon of seven heads and ten horns which 
symbolized the rulers of the Roman Empire pre- 
vious to its division into ten kingdoms, but the 
leader and chief of the fallen angels : nor does 
he here symbolize hostile pagans, as in Rev. xii. 
7-9, but beings of his own kind. To prevent 
the domination of sin during the millennium, it 
would seem necessary not merely that Satan 
himself, but also the other fallen angels, should 
be prevented throughout that period from de- 
ceiving the nations. Hence Satan here repre- 
sents not only himself, but also others of the 
same order : and this symbolization was requi- 
site, because in these circumstances they could 
*not appropriately be represented by men, or 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 63 

by any other beings except one of their own 
class. 

It is asserted, however, that in Rev. xx. 2, 3, 
Satan symbolizes an antichristian party among 
men. But he cannot there symbolize such a 
party, for they as an organized confederacy were 
represented, Rev. xix. 19-21, by the wild beast 
and the false prophet and the kings of the earth 
and their armies who had been destroyed : and 
as he is shut up during the millennium " in the 
bottomless pit," or abyss, which symbolizes the 
place of his confinement throughout that period, 
and not released until after its expiration, no 
such party can, during that cycle of ages, be 
re-organized on the earth, the nations being ex- 
empted, until after the thousand years are ended, 
from temptation by those symbolized by Satan. 
Rev. xx. 2, 3, 7, 8. 

So on the other hand the antagonist angel, 
who laid hold upon Satan the representative of 
the fallen angels who were to be subjected to 
the agency here indicated, symbolizes persons 
of Ms order. The work performed by the sym- 
bolic angel required an angel's strength: and 
therefore to have represented men as performing 
it would have been a false symbolization. Good 
angels, in exerting the agency here foreshown, 



64 THE THIRD LAW 

could properly be symbolized only by one of 
tbeir own order : and evil angels, in being sub- 
•ject to sucli an agency, could be represented 
only by one of theirs. 

In Rev. xx. 12-15, we read : " And I saw the 
dead, small and great, stand before God ; and 
the books were opened : and another book was 
opened which is the book of life : and the dead 
were judged out of those things which were 
written in the books according to their works. 
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; 
and death and hell delivered up the dead which 
were in them : and they were judged every man 
according to their works. And death and hell 
were cast into the lake of tire. This is the 
second death. And whosoever was not found 
written in the book of life was cast into the lake 
of fire." 

We have already shown that this is a symbo- 
lical vision describing what St. John saw, and 
therefore that the prophecy here is through the 
medium of symbols. Otherwise the passage con- 
tains no prophecy whatever, but only narrates 
a past event. It is generally admitted that a 
real resurrection is here foreshown: and what 
other than a real, corporeal resurrection could 
that he which is to take place in connexion with 



OF SYHBOLIZATION. 65 

the judgment before the " great white throne f" 
verse 11. When therefore St. John says that 
he saw the dead, small and great, stand before 
God, the risen dead, seen in the vision, manifestly 
symbolize the risen dead of the epoch denoted. 
They are called dead, because it will then be 
true that those represented have been dead : and 
therefore the epithet is used to identify the class 
of persons referred to, not that they were to con- 
tinue dead after their resurrection and appear- 
ance at the final judgment: just as in the gos- 
pels where we read that " the dead man © v^ *$ 
sat up and began to speak" Luke vii. 15, " the 
deaf hear" Matt. xi. 5, " the dumb man o xa<poe, 
spake," Matt. ix. 33, and in Matt. xv. 31, " they 
saw . . . the lame to walk and the blind to 
see" the epithets dead, deaf, dumb, lame, blind, 
identify the persons spoken of; but no one sup- 
poses that they continued dead, deaf, dumb, 
lame, and blind after the miracles had been per- 
formed. So with regard to the dead here spoken 
of, they were "dead" persons before their resur- 
rection, not after it. The risen dead here sym- 
bolize persons raised from a state of death at the 
epoch denoted, there being no other symbol 
which could properly represent them. The sce- 
nic representation, therefore, of a real, corporeal 



6Q THE THIRD LAW 

resurrection is exhibited in the vision, because 
there is no other symbolization, no analogous 
change of men or other beings, which could 
adequately foreshow such an event. The tran- 
sition of a chrysalis into a winged * insect, for 
example, beautiful as it may be for an illustra- 
tion, would have been utterly insufficient as a 
prophetic symbol of the stupendous change 
which is to take place in the resurrection. The 
former is but the passage from one state of 
bodily life to another : the latter is to be a re- 
animation from a state of bodily death. The 
analogy, therefore, would have failed in the 
very thing to be foreshown. 

In like manner in verse fourth (Kev. xx.) 
where the resurrection of the righteous is sym- 
bolized, the beloved disciple speaks of the souls 
of those who had been beheaded, &c, and says 
" they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand 
years," or rather, according to the reading of the 
best editions, r» xixi* try, " the thousand years," 
that is, those which had been mentioned in verse 
third as indicating the period of Satan's confine- 
ment in the abyss. He calls them souls, to 
identify them as those who having been departed 
spirits were to have their portion, at the epoch 
denoted by the vision, in the resurrection to 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 67 

immortal glory. This is evident from the fact 
mentioned that this class of the dead, the blessed 
and holy, " lived " at the beginning of the thou- 
sand years and reigned with Christ during that 
whole period, whereas " the rest of the dead 7 ' — 
that is, those who at that epoch had already died 
without being in the number of " the blessed 
and holy " — " lived not again until the thousand 
years were finished," verses 4, 5. The one class 
Avere raised previous to " the thousand, years :" 
the other not till after the expiration of that 
period. Both classes AA r ere disembodied souls and 
dead persons before their resurrection, not after 
it : and hence as these epithets are used as 
marks of identity in the two cases, the word 
souls presents no more objection to the real 
literal resurrection of the one class, than the 
word dead does to that of the other class. When 
it is said that the souls of the martyrs " lived" 
at the epoch referred to, the meaning cannot be 
that their disembodied spirits had no conscious 
existence during the preA r ious period which had 
elapsed since the death of their bodies : for that 
is contrary/ to the symbolization under the fifth 
seal in Rev. vi. 9-11, where they are represented 
as haAnng such an existence, and are enjoined to 
wait patiently until their number should be 



68 THE THIRD LAW 

complete, when they were to be avenged upon 
their enemies. It cannot mean that these de- 
parted souls were then to have a spiritual resur- 
rection from a death in trespasses and sins, for 
no such change takes place after death : neither 
was it any more necessary in their case, for they 
were " the Messed and holy" and hence had been 
already regenerated. It cannot denote that the 
martyr spirit was to revive during the millen- 
nium, for living agents denote living agents, and 
not mere acts and states either of body or mind. 
Besides, the martyr spirit is an enduring patient 
disposition in the midst of trials and persecution : 
but there will be no opportunity for the exercise 
of any such spirit during the millennium. It is 
conceded that men in general, if not universally, 
will at that epoch be holy. Public opinion will 
then be as strong against persecution for right- 
eousness' sake, as it ever was in its favor. The 
persecuting civil and ecclesiastical rulers denoted 
by the wild beast and the false prophet will have 
been cast into the place of punishment symbol- 
ized by the lake of fire, Rev. xix. 20. The 
organized confederacy against Christ will have 
been completely overthrown. Rev. xix. 11-21. 
The fallen angels symbolized by Satan their 
chief, Rev. xx. 2, 3, will have been shut up in 



OF SYMBOLIZATIOX. 69 

the place denoted by " the bottomless pit," " that 
they should deceive the nations no more, till the 
thousand years should be fulfilled," Bev. xx. 3. 
Neither men nor devils can disturb the saints 
during the j)eriod foreshown. It is a time of 
triumph and rejoicing, not of endurance and 
suffering. How then can there be any room for 
the exercise of the martyr spirit ? It will not do 
to say that the martyr spirit is a holy disposition, 
for such a disposition is not by any means con- 
fined to the martyrs, but is the common charac- 
teristic of all the righteous. The martyr spirit 
is not simply a holy disposition, but such a dis- 
position exercised under circumstances of trial, 
suffering, and persecution. 

There is but one other meaning that the word 
"lived" can have as here used, and that is, that 
the souls of the righteous lived again in union 
with their bodies, though, as we learn from other 
passages, those bodies will be in a glorified condi- 
tion, like the risen body of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
This word therefore implies a real, corporeal re- 
surrection at the epoch denoted by the vision. 

This is demonstrably evident from the fact 
that the blessed and holy who had part in the 
first resurrection are in the context contrasted 
with the rest of the dead who lived not again, 



70 THE THIRD LAW 

that is, who did not rise from a state of death 
till after the thousand years had expired. We 
have an account of that resurrection in verse 
twelfth, which, as we have already shown, mani- 
festly denotes a real and literal resurrection. 
The whole collective mass of the dead are divid- 
ed into two parts — " the blessed and holy " 
whose portion is in "the first resurrection" — 
these are one part : the other part have their 
portion in the last resurrection. As the latter is 
real, so the former must be real also. As the 
resurrection at the end of the thousand years is 
a literal resurrection, so also is that at the begin- 
ning of the thousand years. 

But further, there is no express explanation 
of the symbolic vision respecting the former, 
namely the post-millennial resurrection. We 
are left to deduce that resurrection from the con- 
text and the symbolization : and that a real 
resurrection is foreshown, is undeniably true. It 
is, however, a matter of inference : whereas in 
regard to the other symbolization contained in 
verse fourth, namely, that of the pre-millennial 
resurrection, we have the inspired explanation — 
"this is," — in other words, this symbolization 
denotes, or this scenic representation is the sym- 
bol of "the first resurrection," Kev. xx. 5. 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 71 

That such is the true meaning of that verse is 
demonstrable from the invariable usage of the 
sacred writers in the inspired interpretation of 
symbols. Thus when the risen Saviour says — 
" the seven stars are the messengers of the 
churches : and the seven candlesticks which 
thou sawest are the seven churches," Rev. i. 20, 
the meaning evidently is that those symbolic 
stars denote or represent those messengers, and 
that those symbolic candlesticks denote or re- 
present those churches. When it is said in 
Rev. xvii. 15 — " the waters which thou sawest 
where the harlot sitteth are peoples, and multi- 
tudes, and nations, and tongues," the meaning 
clearly is, that those symbolic waters denote or 
represent vast multitudes of different nations 
speaking different languages. When it is said 
in Dan vii. 17, "these great beasts which are 
four are four kings," the meaning is that these 
beasts denote or represent or are the symbols of 
four kings, that is, four ruling dynasties. When 
it is said in Dan. viii. 20, 21, that " the ram which 
thou sawest having two horns are the kings of 
Media and Persia, and the rough goat is the king 
of Grecia, and the great horn that is between his 
eyes is the first king," the meaning confessedly 
is, that the ram denotes or represents the Medo- 



72 THE THIRD LAW 

Persian dynasty ; and the goat, the Grecian ; 
and the great horn, the first dynasty among the 
, victorious Grecians. In these inspired interpre- 
tations, and so in all the others in the Scriptures, 
wherever it is said that a given symbol such as 
a candlestick, a ram, a wild beast, &c, is any 
^given thing, the meaning invariably is, denotes 
or represents such a thing. The verb to be is 
commonly expressed, as in Rev. i. 20, where it 
occurs in the form of the third person plural 
present indicative — in the Greek «*»', and in 
English " are." In Rev. xx. 5, the same verb or 
its equivalent is understood, — Avrti j avxrrcccrtq r\ 
•xpaTYi, literally translated — " This, the resurrec- 
tion the first," the verb *«■», &, being implied. 
The invariable usage of Scripture, therefore, de- 
monstrates that the correct exposition of the 
words is — "this," i. e. this symbolization just 
described in verse fourth, to which verse' we 
must look as embodying the antecedent of the 
pronoun «wtjj this — this symbolization or repre- 
sentation denotes or foreshows the first resur- 
rection.* The word resurrection, therefore, is 
an inspired interpretation of something that was 
symbolized in the vision, and hence it must be 

* Lord's Review of Brown. Theol. and Lit. Journal for 
July, 1851. 



OS SYMBOLIZATION. 73 

taken in its literal import : for such is the usage 
of Scripture. To recur to the examples just 
cited : — when the seven candlesticks are explain- 
ed as symbolizing seven churches, or congre- 
gations of visible worshippers ; the meaning is 
literal congregations of real men, not something 
which such congregations metaphorically re- 
semble. When the waters are explained as 
symbolizing vast multitudes of nations speaking 
different languages, real literal nations and real 
literal languages are obviously intended. When 
the ram is explained as symbolizing the Medo- 
Persian dynasty, a real dynasty, and not a figu- 
rative one, is signified. Agreeably to this usage, 
therefore, the word resurrection, which is here 
employed as an inspired interpretation of some- 
thing symbolized in the vision, must denote a 
literal and not a figurative resurrection. No- 
thing, therefore, can be more demonstrably cer- 
tain than that the Scriptures teach that there 

Will be A LITERAL RESURRECTION OF BELIEVERS* 

* Professor Stuart, who was a strenuous anti-millenarian, 
fully admits that this is a real and literal resurrection. He 
says that he does not see how we can fairly avoid such a con- 
clusion, and that he has " given reasons why we seem to be 
constrained to admit the sense of a bodily resurrection like to 
the last and final one." — Stuart on the Apocalypse, vol. ii Ex- 
cursus vi. p. 476. 



74 THE THIRD LAW 

antecedent to the period denoted by " the thou- 
sand years," commonly called the millennium 
or age of millennial blessedness, when the earth 
is to be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the 
waters cover the sea, and when Christ and his 
glorified saints are to extend their beneficent 
sway over all peoples, nations, and languages 
under the whole heaven. 

In a word, St. John saw in vision a collection 
of the symbolic risen dead sitting upon thrones, 
which foreshows that those whom they repre- 
sented were, at the epoch denoted by the vision, 
to be invested with regal authority — this collec- 
tion of persons doubtless symbolizing the whole 
number of the deceased righteous at the epoch 
indicated : and among this glorious throng which 
he beheld he mentions two classes in particular 
that attracted his attention. One was the mar- 
tyrs : the other, those who, without suffering 
martyrdom, had not yielded an idolatrous ho- 
mage to the persons symbolized by the beast. 

" And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, 
and judgment was given unto them," that is, 
those who sat upon the thrones were invested 
with authority to act as judges : " and I saw 
the souls of them that were beheaded for the 
witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 75 

oiwei whoever had not worshipped the beast, 
neither his image, neither had received his mark 
upon their foreheads, or in their hands: and 
they lived and reigned with Christ rk xtxtx. er% 
the thousand years. But the rest of the dead 
lived not again until the thousand years were 
finished. This is the first resurrection. Bless- 
ed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
resurrection : on such the second death hath no 
power, but they shall be priests of God and of 
Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand 
years." Rev. xx. 4-6. 

The vision, therefore, denotes a real, literal 
resurrection antecedent to the millennium ; and 
when it is said -that the blessed and holy have 
part in that resurrection, and that on such the 
second death hath no power, the design is to 
teach us that none but such as are blessed and 
holy rise to a life of immortal glory, and become 
exempt from the fearful doom which is in store 
for the wicked. 

The symbolic risen saints seen in the vision, 
Rev. xx. 4, represent the real saints, the blessed 
and holy, that are to be raised at Christ's com- 
ing ; their resurrection foreshows the real resur- 
rection of the saints at that epoch ; their investi- 
ture with judicial power and regal authority, the 



<b THE THIRD LAW 

similar investiture of the saints whom they sym- 
bolize : and in every instance in the sacred Scrip- 
- tures where a symbol is of the same species with 
that which is symbolized, there is a reason for 
such a symbolization in the nature of the case, 
inasmuch as to have used a symbol of a different 
species would have involved an incongruity, and 
have failed of its object. 

We have thus proved the truth of the third 
law of symbolization by the same line of argu- 
ment as that adopted in regard to the first and 
second, namely, by an appeal to the word of 
God, and the interpretations either directly given 
therein or legitimately inferred from the context. 
We have proved it by the vision in Rev. v., 
where the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus 
Christ, the risen and divine Eedeemer, appears 
in person as the Lamb whom saints and angels 
worship ; and by the vision in Rev. xix. where 
the celestial Leader who is followed by the ar- 
mies from heaven is expressly styled " the "Word 
of God, King- of kings and Lord of lords" We 
haye proved it also by the vision in Rev. iv. 
where God the Father appears as his own repre- 
sentative ; by the white-robed palm-bearers, Rev. 
vii. ; by the spirits of the martyrs under the 
fifth seal, Rev. vi. ; by the men who hid them- 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 77 

selves from the wrath of the Lamb, Rev. vi. ; 
by the two witnesses, Rev. xi. ; by the servants 
of Christ, Rev. xii., who are spoken of as over- 
coming by the blood of the Lamb and as loving 
not their lives unto the death ; by the men who 
worshipped the beast, Rev. xiii. ; by the men who 
repented not of their idolatries and other sins, 
Rev. ix. ; by the men who blasphemed the name 
of God and persevered in impenitence, Rev. 
xvi. ; by the kings of the whole world, Rev. xvi. 
11, 16 ; by Satan and the angel who confined 
him, Rev. xx. 1-3 ; by the unholy raised from 
death, Rev. xx. 12, 13, 15 ; and by the enthroned 
saints representing the " blessed and holy " who, 
in " the first resurrection," are to be raised from 
the dead to reign with Christ during the period 
symbolized by the thousand years, Rev. xx. 4-6. 
Such a multitude of passages demonstrating 
the truth of this law must therefore be consider- 
ed as fully establishing the principle, as one 
revealed in the word of God, that symbols that 
are of such, a nature, station, or relation, that 
there is nothing of an analogous hind that they 
can represent, symbolize agents, objects, acts, or 
events of their own hind. 



CHAPTEK YI. 

Discussion of the fourth law. 

IY. "The Fourth Law: When the symbol 
and that which it symbolizes differ from each 
other, the correspondence between the representa- 
tive and that which it represents, still extends to 
their chief parts / and the general elements or 
parts of the symbol denote corresponding parts 
in that which is symbolized." 

Here also the Scriptures furnish the mo 
abundant proof. Thus, while the victorious 
ram, in its successful pushing against other 
beasts, denoted a conquering dynasty, its two 
horns indicated that the dynasty was complex, 
which was historically verified in the Medo-Per- 
sian. Dan. viii. 4, 20. The inspired explanation 
is — " The ram which thou sawest- having two 
horns are the kings of Media and Persia." This 
is exactly what has been stated in the law under 
consideration, namely, that, ia the circumstances 
specified, the chief parts of the symbol have a 
corresponding reality in that which is symbolized. 



THE FOURTH LAW. 79 

In like manner, when the ram was afterwards 
overthrown by the he-goat, the symbolization 
foreshowed that the dynasty represented by the 
ram would be subverted by that which was 
represented by the goat, in other words the 
Medo-Persian by the Grecian. The fact that 
the " he-goat came from the west on the face of 
the whole earth and touched not the ground," 
indicated that the conqueror was to come from 
that direction, and advance with great rapidity 
in his career of triumph. Dan. viii. 5. The 
large horn between his eyes denoted, according 
to the inspired interpretation, verse 21, " the first 
king," to wit, Alexander the Great who con- 
quered Darius. The horn in its broken state 
foreshowed a corresponding condition of the 
dynasty symbolized : and the springing up of 
four horns in its place, verse 8, indicated, accord- 
ing to the inspired interpretation, verse 22, that 
four dynasties were to arise who should divide 
among themselves the empire of their former 
chief. All this was historically fulfilled. The 
regal sway was not perpetuated in the family of 
Alexander: their reign lasted only for a short 
period after his death, and was little more than 
nominal : and at length four of his generals, dis- 
tributing the empire among themselves, reigned 



80 THE FOURTH LAW 

each in his own quarter, as the successors of 
their illustrious master. Here, too, we see the 
law verified in the fact that there is a corres- 
pondence between the different parts of the sym- 
bol and that which it represents. 

So also the several parts of the great image 
seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream had their 
corresponding realities in the agents symbolized. 
The head of gold, Dan. ii. 32, represented, ac- 
cording to the inspired interpretation, the Baby- 
lonian dynasty : " Thou, O king ... thou 
art this head of gold," verses 37, 38. The breasts 
and arms of silver, verse 32, denoted, according 
to the inspired interpretation, verse 39, another 
dynasty which was to succeed the Babylonian, 
and that second dynasty, we know from history, 
was the Meclo-Persian. The belly and thighs of 
brass, verse 32, represented according to the in- 
spired interpretation, verse 39, a third dynasty 
which was to succeed the second, and that third 
dynasty, we know from history, was the Grecian. 
The legs of iron and the feet part of iron and 
part of clay (that is, according to the meaning 
of the original, burnt clay or potters' ware), verse 
33, denoted, according to the inspired interpre- 
tation, verse 40, a fourth dynasty, and that, we 
know from history, was the Koman which sue- 



OF SYMBOLIZATIOJS". 81 

ceeded the Grecian or third dynasty in this 
series. The strength of the iron indicated an 
analogous element in the rulers of the fourth 
great monarchy. The brittleness of the clay or 
potters'- ware, on the other hand, foreshowed an 
element corresponding to that symbol, verses 41, 
42. The want of thorough union between the 
iron and clay denoted, according to the inspired 
interpretation, verse 43, an analogous want of 
union between the strong and the fragile ele- 
ments, that is, as verified in history, between the 
powerful monarchs or chief rulers and the people 
— " the seed of men " — admitted to a share in 
the government by means of the elective fran- 
chise. The crushing of the image by the stone, 
verses 34, 35, denoted, according to the inspired 
interpretation, verse 44, that the dynasties sym- 
bolized by the image were to be destroyed by 
that symbolized by the stone.* What stronger 

* The dream with the inspired interpretation is as follows : 
Dan. ii. 31-45. 

Verse 31. "Thou, king, sawest and behold a great image. 
This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before 
thee , and the form thereof was terrible. 

32. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his 
arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass. 

33. His legs of iron, his feet part of iron, and part of clay. 

34. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, 

4* 



82 THE FOURTH LAW 

proof could we have of the truth of our fourth 
law that there is such a correspondence, as we 

which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, 
and brake them to pieces. 

35. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and 
the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff 
of the summer threshing-floors ; and the wind carried them 
away, that no place was found for them : and the stone that 
smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole 
earth. 

36. This is the dream ; and we will tell the interpretation 
thereof before the king. 

37. Thou, king, art a king of kings : for the God of heaven 
hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 

38. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts 
of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into 
thine "hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou 
art this head of gold. 

39. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to 
thee, and another third kingdom of brass which shall bear rule 
over all the earth. 

40. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron : foras- 
much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and 
as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and 
bruise. 

41. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of 
potters'-clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; 
but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as 
thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. 

42. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part 
of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly bro- 
ken (brittle or fragile). 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 83 

have stated, between the chief parts of the sym- 
bol and that which the symbol represents ? The 
inspired interpretations, as we have seen, de- 
monstrate the correctness of that law, and this 
demonstration is confirmed by acknowledged 
historical facts. What further proof conld be 
desired ? Or what more conclusive line of argu- 
ment could be adopted in this discussion ? The 
main point at issue is whether these laws are sus- 
tained by the inspired interpretations: and we 
are proving that they are, by pointing out the 
exact agreement between the one and the other. 

But conclusive as are the facts already pre- 
sented, there is additional evidence to which we 
would briefly call the attention of the reader. 

43. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, 
they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men : but they 
shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with 
clay. 

44. And in the days of these kings sliall the God of heaven set 
up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed : and the kingdom 

.shall not he left to other people, but it shall break in pieces 
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 

45. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of 
the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the 
iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold ; the great 
God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass here- 
after : and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof 



84 THE FOURTH LAW 

In the parallel vision* in Dan. vii., the rulers 
of the four great empires were symbolized by 

* The four great empires in each case, Dan. ii. 31-45, and 
■vii. 3-27, cover the whole period from the time of Nebuchad- 
nezzar to the establishment of the kingdom of Christ and his 
saints. In Dan. vii. 17, "These great beasts, which are four, 
are four kings which shall arise out of the earth ;" the future 
tense in the verb " shall arise," is used in speaking of these 
dynasties as a whole, because three out of four were then fu- 
ture. Commentators are generally agreed that the four em- 
pifes whose rulers are symbolized by the great image in Dam 
ii., are the same with those whose rulers are represented by 
the four beasts in Dan. vii. 

The only universal monarchy immediately succeeding the 
Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, and the Grecian, and answer- 
ing to the description in Dan. vii. 7-23, as a fierce and all-con- 
quering power, was the Roman, and therefore the fourth or 
ten-horned beast must symbolize the supreme and subordinate 
rulers of that empire. 

Professor Stuart maintains (Commentary on Daniel, p. 202^ 
that the fourth beast symbolizes " the four kingdoms of Alex- 
ander's successors." But the dynasties of Alexander's generals 
were merely a part of the series or line of rulers symbolized 
by the winged leopard with four beads, or third beast of Dan.. 
vii. 6, and by the he-goat with a great horn, in place of which 
came up four other horns, Dan. viii. 8. They cannot, there- 
fore, be denoted by the fourth beast, which was altogether se- 
parate from the third, and represented an entirely distinct line 
of rulers. 

The ten-horned beast, in Dan. vii., symbolizes the rulers of 
ike Western Roman Empire in its different stages down to its 
final overthrow, when Christ's kingdom is to be established. 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 85 

four ravenous beasts. The first beast, like the 
head of gold, represented the first or Babylonian 

"We say the Western Roman Empire, because that division of 
the Empire was the one which was distinct in its appropriate 
territories from those which were governed by the dynasties 
represented by the first three beasts ; and the kingdoms in 
modern Europe which occupy the territorial platform of the 
"Western Empire, are in the view of the Holy Spirit essentially 
that same empire, just as the " ten kings" denote, not merely 
the original chiefs of the primary ten kingdoms, but also their 
successors in the sovereign rule. It is from overlooking this 
fact that Professor Stuart has been unable to see how the fourth 
beast, in the seventh chapter of Daniel, cai> symbolize the 
rulers of the Roman Empire, inasmuch as he cannot discover 
in that empire any element corresponding to the clay of the 
great image, prior to " the conquest by Goths and Vandals, 
and the subsequent division of the empire." " A more com- 
pact, undivided, powerful dynasty," he adds, "never arose on 
earth" (Commentary on Daniel, p. 193). But such character- 
istics correspond exactly with the "legs of iron," Dan. ii. 33. 
It is to a later period that we must look for an element of 
weakness corresponding to the clay that was mingled with the 
iron in the ten toes. That we are not coining imaginary facts 
to sustain a preconceived hypothesis, is evident from the lan- 
guage of the celebrated historian, who had no belief in the 
inspiration of the prophecies, and who speaks of the Western 
Empire as having, after its previous decay, a renewed exist- 
ence in the time of Charlemagne (Gibbon's Rome, chapter 
xlix.). This shows that Gibbon perceived part of the truth, 
though he came far short of what is made known to the dis- 
cerning Christian in the revelation of God's word. How strik- 
ingly in our own day have the kingdoms of "Western and 



86 THE FOURTH LAW 

dynasty ; the second beast, like the breasts and 
arms of silver, the second or Medo-Persian dy- 
nasty ; the third beast, like the belly and thighs 
of brass, the third or Grecian dynasty ; the fourth 
beast, like the legs of iron, and the feet part of 
iron, and part of clay, Dan. ii. 33, 42, the fourth 
or Roman dynasty, Dan. vii. 17, 23 ; the ten 
horns of this beast, like the ten toes of the great 
image, the " ten kings," or supreme civil rulers 

South Western Europe exhibited in their ruler3 and people 
what was foreshown by the prophecy, the mingled character- 
istics of iron and clay ! As the rulers symbolized by the ten- 
horned beast bear sway until the epoch when Christ and the 
saints (who, as we shall hereafter show, are not persons in the 
"natural body," but those in the glorified or "spiritual body") 
are to be invested with the dominion over all peoples, nations, 
and languages under the whole heaven, Dan. vii. 9-18. 21, 22, 
26, 27, the empire over which they (the rulers denoted by the 
fourth beast) reign must be considered as essentially the same 
empire down to that period ; and as the third beast, in Dan. 
vii., represented the line of Grecian rulers, commencing with 
Alexander the Great, and continued in his successors, and the 
fourth beast, a series of rulers, which commenced the next in 
point of time to the Grecian, and was to have dominion until 
the period for the setting up of the kingdom of Christ and the 
saints over all nations, the succession denoted by the fourth 
beast had its historical counterpart in the Roman dynasties : 
and these indubitable facts overturn the opinion of the Futur- 
ists, who hold that the fourth beast denotes, exclusively, a per- 
secuting power which has not yet appeared. 



OF SYMBOLIZATICXN". 87 

of the ten kingdoms,* Dan. vii. 24 ; and the 
little horn (which was the eleventh, and to make 
way for the growth of which three of the other 
horns were plucked up), a line of rulers who were 
to be diverse from the others, Dan. vii. 8, 24. 

Here, too, we see the same indications of cor- 
respondence between the chief parts of the sym- 
bol and that which it represents ; and the inspired 
interpretations in verses 17, 23, 24 (Dan. vii.), 
respecting the four great beasts and the ten 
horns, and the little horn of the fourth beast, 
fully sustain the law. 

We might strengthen the argument in support 
of this fourth law, by referring to the " seven 
heads " which appeared on the apocalyptic dra- 
gon and wild beast, Rev. xii. xiii. xvii. 

Without entering, however, into the historical 
exposition, it will be sufficient for our present 
purpose to remind the reader that the "seven 
heads" which were parts of the complex symbol, 
denote, according to the inspired interpretation, 
" seven kings," Rev. xvii. 10, that is, seven 
lines or successions of chiefs or rulers having 
the supreme authority, of whom five had already 
passed away when St. John saw the vision, 

* Those into which the Western Empire was divided by the 
irruptions of the Goths, Vandals, and other barbarous tribes. 



88 THE FOITKTH LAW 

and one (the sixth in the series) was then in 
existence.* And what is this inspired interpre- 

* " And here is the mind which hath wisdom, the seven 
heads are seven mountains at (Gr. im followed by a genitive) 
which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings ; five are 
fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come ; and when 
he cometh, he must continue a short space," Rev. xvii. 9, 10. 
When it is said, that "the seven heads are seven mountains," 
or hills, " and there are seven kings," the meaning is, that the 
seven heads and the seven hills (which were probably the seven 
hills of Rome seen in vision) symbolize the same persons, that 
is, seven kings, or seven lines of chief magistrates, or supreme 
rulers; just as the two witnesses represent the saaie persons 
as might be symbolized by two olive trees and two candle- 
sticks, Rev. xi. 3, 4. Nearly all the commentators, however, 
have interpreted the seven heads as symbolizing not only the 
seven kings, but also the seven hills, which is absurd ; for if the 
seven hills, as well as the seven kings, or lines of chiefs, are sym- 
bolized by the seven heads, then as these " kings" were not con- 
temporaneous, neither could the hills be. So also, in Rev. xvii. 
18, the meaning is not that the woman, who was seen riding 
on a ten-horned beast, was a symbol of the city of Rome, but 
that this "woman," whose name was "Babylon the Great," Rev. 
xvii, 5, symbolized the same class of persons as the "great 
city'''' Babylon symbolized, which is repeatedly spoken of in 
the Apocalypse under the appellation of the "great city," and 
"great Babylon" Rev. xiv. 8; xvi. 19 ; xviii. 2, 10, 18, 19, 21, 
and which, as a symbol city — " the great city having dominion, 
e^owa (3aoi\ziav, over the kings of the earth," Rev. xvii. 18 — 
had been exhibited to St. John in the visions in which he saw 
the Euphrates flowing through it, Rev. xvi. 12, and the city 
divided into three parts, verse 19. 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 89 

tation but another statement of our fourth law 
of prophetic symbols that, in the circumstan- 
ces specified in that law, there is a correspon- 
dence between the chief parts of the symbol 
and that which is symbolized. 

So, also, the " ten horns " of the apocalyptic 
wild beast, like the ten which were seen by 
Daniel, are explained in the inspired interpreta- 
tion to mean "ten kings," rulers or governors, 
Rev. xvii. 12. Here, too, is another correspond- 
ence like that above mentioned, and an addi- 
tional proof of the correctness of the law. 

The same is true also, of the woman who rode 
upon the beast. This harlot -sorceress, who is 
styled "Babylon the Great," Rev. xvii. 5, is 
exhibited, Rev. xvii. 3, as sitting upon (Gr. «r« 
followed by the accusative case) a seven-headed 
and ten-horned wild beast. She is said, Rev. 
xvii. 1, to sit at (Gr. *V< followed by the geni- 
tive) the many waters which, in verse loth, are 
explained as symbolizing " peoples, and mul- 
titudes, and nations, and tongues," that is,* great 

* In another vision, Rev. xiii. 4, the masses of the people 
(which are symbolized in Rev. xvii., by the waters at which 
the woman was sitting) are exhibited as worshipping the 
beast. The body of the people, therefore, are not repre- 
sented by the body of the beast, for that would be to confound 



90 THE FOURTH LAW 

masses of people of different nations and lan- 
guages, making in the aggregate a dense mul- 
titude, analogous to a vast collection of waters. 
The woman does not symbolize the civil rulers 
of the ten kingdoms, for they are represented 
by the seven-headed and ten-horned wild beast 
which carries and supports her. She does not 
symbolize the great body of the people com- 
posing a church, or collection of churches, for 
the masses of the people are symbolized by 
the waters at which the woman sitteth. She 
must therefore represent an organized body of 
ecclesiastical rulers and teachers, as they are the 
only class that is not comprised in the civil 
rulers and common people. She was " arrayed 
in purple and scarlet color, and decked with 
gold and precious stones and pearls," Rev. 
xvii. 4. Her jewels and clothing represent the 
wealth, luxury, and pomp of the persons sym- 
bolized. She had " a golden cup in her hand 

the object worshipped with those who worship. The beast 
is one thing, those who worship it another. In Eev. xiii. 4, 
agreeably to our third law, the people, for reasons already as- 
signed, are represented by those of their own species ; and as 
the body and inferior parts of the beast do not symbolize the 
great masses of the people, they must, as distinguished from 
the heads and horns, denote the subordinate rulers and magis- 
trates. 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 91 

full of abominations and filthiness of her forni- 
cation." This indicates that those whom she re- 
presents have the disposition to entice others to 
idolatry and apostasy. "Upon her forehead was 
a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, 
the Mother of harlots, and abominations of the 
earth," Rev. xvii. 5, which foreshows that the 
character of those symbolized would be that of 
persons exerting an artful and successful agency 
in the seduction of others, and constituting an 
organized structure of men analogous to that of 
a great city like Babylon. She was " drunken 
with the blood of the saints, and with the blood 
of the martyrs* of Jesus," Rev. xvii. 6, which 
denotes that the persons here symbolized were 
to become intoxicated with joy from persecuting, 
even unto death, the people of God. 

But, without swelling this Essay into a large 
volume, by gathering together the almost innu- 
merable proofs which we find upon the pages of 
Scripture, the evidence already presented is 
abundantly sufficient to show, in regard to this 
fourth law of symbolization, that when the sym- 
bol is of a different order from the thing sym- 
bolized, the resemblance extends to their chief 

* In the Greek, t&v ftaprvpuv, the witnesses, the same word as 
in Rev. xi. 3. 



92 THE FOUETH LAW. 

parts, and the general elements in the one corres- 
pond to the general elements in the other. The 
two horns of the ram ; the great horn of the he- 
goat ; the four horns which grew up after that 
horn was broken; the various characteristics, 
acts, and relations exhibited in the scenic repre- 
sentation of these symbol animals ; the several 
parts of the great image ; the ten horns, and the 
eleventh or little horn of the fourth beast ; the 
seven heads and ten horns of the apocalyptic 
dragon and wild beast ; and the harlot sorceress, 
with her gorgeous attire, her conspicuous name, 
and her golden cup — all have their counterpart 
in corresponding realities : and the same is true 
of all the interpreted symbols. The law, there- 
fore, may be considered as having the most am- 
ple demonstration. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

Discussion of the fifth law. 

V. "The Fifth Law : The Names of Sym- 
bols are their Literal and Proper Names." 

Thus, as is evident from what was said in the 
discussion of the third law, such denominatives 
as " the Lamb? " the Word of God," " the Lion 
of the tribe of Judah" " the Root of David" 
Rev. v. and xix., are used in the Apocalypse as 
proper names of the Son of God. The person 
indicated by these titles is Jehovah- Jesus, God 
manifest in the flesh ; and, in his risen and glo- 
rified humanity, he appears in vision to the be- 
loved disciple. 

Again, when it is said that John saw seven 
candlesticks, seven stars, seven heads, ten horns, 
a great red dragon, diadems on the heads or on 
the horns, a woman sitting upon* a beast, and 
atf the many waters, a beautiful city adorned 
with precious stones, and so in all other similar 

* Gr. iin followed by an accusative. 
f Gr em followed by a genitive. 



94 THE FIFTH LAW 

cases, the language is, in every instance, literal- 
ly descriptive of what was seen in the vision. 
So in the account of the different parts of the 
great image, Dan. ii., the words iron, clay, brass, 
silver, gold, are all used in their literal sense, and 
tell us exactly what Nebuchadnezzar saw in his 
dream. As there is no end to the objects which 
resemble candlesticks, stars, cities, rams, he- 
goats, heads, horns, iron, clay, &c, and might be 
called such by a metaphor, if the terms used in 
describing the symbols be not their literal and 
proper names, we could not tell what the symbols 
were ; we should find ourselves on a sea of con- 
jecture, and, except where we had an inspired 
explanation, there would be an end to every- 
thing like demonstrative, or even probable inter- 
pretation. 

It is in vain to say that we could be certain 
of the meaning when the prophecy was fulfilled : 
for we could not tell whether a symbolic pro- 
phecy was fulfilled in any given event, or that 
a symbolic agent was verified in any given per- 
son or class of persons, unless we could first tell 
what the symbol was. How could we otherwise 
perceive any analogy or correspondence between 
the symbol and that which it represented ? As 
well might we say that a given object resembled 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 95 

a cube, or a sphere, or a pyramid, or a cylinder, 
or that a given figure was like a square, or a cir- 
cle, or a triangle, or a parallelogram, when we 
had no conception of the meaning of such terms. 
The names of symbols, therefore, are their li- 
teral and jproper names. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

Discussion of the sixth law. 

VI. "The Sixth Law: A Single Agent, in 
many instances, symbolizes a Body and Succes- 
sion of Agents" 

Thus, the fourth or ten-horned beast of Daniel, 
which, as a symbol, was a single agent, represent- 
ed a body or collection of agents, namely, the 
rulers of the Roman Empire. It symbolized the 
power which was to succeed the Grecian dynas- 
ty represented by the third beast, and to bear 
sway over the earth, Dan. vii. 23 ; and that 
power was undeniably the Roman. It also de- 
noted a succession of agents, for it is described 
as acting until the coming of the Ancient of 
Days, and the possession of the kingdom by the 
saints of the Most High, Dan. vii. 9-22, a period 
which is yet future.* 

In like manner, the first three beasts, in 
Dan. vii., each symbolized a collection and 
succession of agents, namely, the rulers of the 

* See above, Note, pp. 84-86. 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 97 

Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and Grecian mo- 
narchies. 

A candlestick, as we have seen, symbolizes 
an assembly of visible worshippers; the seven 
candlesticks symbolized the seven churches of 
Asia ; and each of those churches comprised a 
number of individuals, and also a succession of 
individuals, so long as the churches existed. 

The ram with its two horns, and the he-goat 
with its great horn, in place of which grew up 
four horns, Dam viii., symbolized a body and 
succession of agents ; the former, the Medo-Per- 
sian; the latter, the dynasty of Alexander and 
his generals. 

The two witnesses, Rev. xi., symbolize certain 
faithful churches and their ministers,* who tes- 
tify for Christ throughout the specified career of 
those denoted by the beast from the sea, Rev. 
xi. 3, compared with xiii. 5 ; and consequently, 
they represent a body and succession of agents. 

We might give additional proof of the truth, 
of this law by a reference to other symbols ; but 
these are sufficient for its verification. 

A single agent, therefore, in many instances, 
symbolizes a body and succession of agents. 

* See above, chapter v., pp. 52-58. 

5 



CHAPTEE IX. 

Discussion of the seventh law. 

VII. The Seventh Law : The periods of time 
ditring which a representative agent performs 
certain representative acts, symbolize the periods 
during which the agents denoted by the symbols 
perform the corresponding acts y and in all those 
cases where such an interpretation is not contrary 
to analogy, days symbolize years. 

If agents denote agents, and acts denote acts, 
then the periods during which symbolical agents 
perform a given symbolical agency mnst fore- 
show the periods during which the agents de- 
noted by the symbols perform the corresponding 
acts. 

Thus, when Ezekiel, as a symbol of the house 
of Israel, lay upon his left side three hundred 
and ninety days, it foreshadowed an analogous 
period in reference to Israel. When, as a sym- 
bol of the house of Judah, he lay upon his right 
side forty days, it foreshowed an analogous 
period in reference to Judah. The inspired ex- 



THE SEVENTH LAW. 99 

planation is — " I have appointed thee each daif* 
for a year" Ezek. iv. 6. The three hundred and 
ninety days, therefore, symbolized three hundred 
and ninety years; and the forty days, forty 
years ; and this is according to analogy. The 
shorter period of a day in which the earth per- 
forms a revolution on its axis, is evidently fit- 
ted to symbolize the longer period of an astro- 
nomical or solar year in which the earth per- 
forms a revolution round the sun. And that the 
years denoted are solar, and not lunar years, is 
corroborated by the fact, that while on the one 
hand the Jewish months were lunar, being reck- 
oned from one new moon to another, their years 
were always solar, being reckoned from equinox 
to equinox, their civil year from the autumnal 
equinox, and their sacred year from the vernal ; 
and as they counted but twelve months to the 
year, and these months were lunar, in order to 
make up the deficiency they inserted, every 
three years, an intercalary month called Yeadar, 
that is, the second Adar. In the Apocalypse 
twelve months are reckoned, in round numbers, 
to the year, and thirty days to the month, or 
three hundred and sixty days to the year ; as is 
evident from the expressions, forty-two months, 
twelve hundred and sixty days, and time, times. 



100 THE SEVENTH LAW 

and half a time, or three years and a half, which 
are used interchangeably.* In converting years, 
therefore, in the symbolic prophecies into the 
equivalent expression in days, three hundred and 
sixty days must be reckoned to the year ; but 
each of those, days, in its symbolical import, 
must be considered as representing a full revo- 
lution of the earth round the sun, for this *is re- 
quired by analogy, that is, a complete astronomi- 
cal or solar year from equinox to equinox. Con- 
sequently, according to the apocalyptic usage, 
the equivalent expression for one thousand years, 
Rev. xx., would be three hundred and sixty 
thousand days ; and these days, according to the 
law which we are considering, would represent 
three hundred and sixty thousand astronomical 
or solar years. 

The inspired explanation in Ezek. iv. 6 — " I 
have appointed thee each day for a year" — 
shows what is meant in all cases of the same 
class ; in other words, that in all cases where 
the agency is symbolic, and the symbolic period 
measuring that agency is expressed in days or their 

Months. Days. Days. 

* 42 X 30 = 1260— Rev. xi. 2, 3; xiii. 5; and 

Years. Days. Days. 

3£ X 360 = 1260— Rev. xii. 6, 14; and 

Years. Months. Months 

3i X 32 = 42. 



OF SYMBOLIZATION. 101 

equivalent, "each day" represents "a year" 
provided that in the particular example to 
which the principle is applied, there be nothing 
contrary to analogy in such an interpretation. 

If a succession- of rulers be symbolized by a 
wild beast, it is quite according to analogy that 
the beast on the one hand should be represented 
as acting for twelve hundred and sixty days, for 
that period does not exceed the ordinary life of 
a beast ; and on the other hand, as it respects 
the series of rulers, that each day should sym- 
bolize a year, for it is not contrary to the nature 
either of a civil or an ecclesiastical dynasty that 
it should continue for twelve hundred and sixty 
years. 

Thus, in Rev. xiiL, the ten-horned wild beast 
is a symbol / his agency is symbolic ; and, there- 
fore, the period which measures that agency is 
also symbolic, and as there is nothing in this case 
contrary to analogy in such an interpretation, 
the twelve hundred and sixty days in which the 
beast exerts his agency, symbolize the twelve 
hundred and sixty years in which the succession 
of civil rulers denoted by the beast exert their 
corresponding and analogous agency. These rul- 
ers have already exerted for more than twelve 
hundred years the agency foreshown ; and that 



102 THE SEVENTH LAW 

undeniable historical fact establishes the correct- 
ness of the principle. 

Similar remarks apply to this period in its re- 
lation to the " two witnesses," Rev. xi. It is not 
contrary to analogy that for twelve hundred and 
sixty days, two individual men should continue 
faithful to the truth ; or on the other hand, that 
for twelve hundred and sixty years there should 
be a succession of faithful ministers and people, 
constituting the symbolized churches and pastors. 
That prophecy, therefore, foreshowed that those 
who are represented by the witnesses were to tes- 
tify for Jesus through a period of this duration. 

It has already been shown that there will be 
a real resurrection of the saints anterior to the 
millennium, and that the equivalent expression 
for one thousand years, Eev. xx. 2-7, is three 
hundred and sixty thousand days. As it is not 
incompatible with the nature of Satan that he 
should be imprisoned for three hundred and 
sixty thousand years, or with the nature of glo- 
rified and immortal saints, that they should 
reign with Christ during the same period ; and 
as the act of the angel, in the vision, in layiag 
hold upon Satan and shutting him up, is a sym- 
bolical act, and consequently the period which 
measures the duration of his imprisonment a 



OF 8TMBOLTZATIOB". 103 

symbolical period, it follows that the principle 
of " a day for a year " must be applied here 
also, and that the three hundred and sixty thou- 
sand days symbolize three hundred and sixty 
thousand astronomical or solar years. 

It has been objected to these views, that the 
seven times of Nebuchadnezzar's insanity, Dan. 
iv., cannot denote two thousand five hundred 
and twenty years, that being the product of seven 
multiplied by three hundred and sixty. But how 
does that affect this law of prophetic symbols ? 
The seven times, in Dan. iv. 16, are not predi- 
cated of the symbol, but of the person symbol- 
ized ; and therefore the objection is of no force 
against the law in question. This is demonstra- 
bly the fact from what is said in that passage — 
" let his heart he changed from man's, and let a 
beast's heart be given him, and let seven times 
pass over him." A man's heart on the one hand, 
and a beast's heart on the other, that is, human 
sympathies and those of the brutes, cannot be 
predicated of a tree, and therefore this part of 
the prophecy is not symbolical, but verbal.* The 

* The transition from the symbolical to the verbal, as we 
6tated in the first chapter, begins in the latter part of verse 
15th — "and let his portion be with the beasts of the earth. 

16. " Let his heart be changed from man's," &c. 



104 THE SEVENTH LAW 

language here used is not applicable to the tree 
which was the symbol, but only to Nebuchad- 
nezzar, who was the person symbolized ; and it 
is over him, and not over the tree, that the seven 
times are said to pass, and hence they are to be 
interpreted accordingly. The prediction, there- 
fore, of the seven times, in Dan. iv. 16, was part 
of a verbal prophecy which foreshowed that Ne- 
buchadnezzar should be deprived of his reason, 
and be degraded for seven years from the dignity 
and glory of a man, to the level of a brute. How, 
then, does this chronological period in a verbal 
prophecy disprove the law under consideration, 
which has reference exclusively to symbolical 
prophecy ? 

So, also, the seven times, in the twenty-sixth 
chapter of Leviticus, are not symbolical. The 
Hebrew y"y$* in Lev. xxvi. 18, 21, 24, 28, is 
equivalent in that connexion to sevenfold, and 
denotes not the duration but the intensity of 
the judgments which the Lord would inflict upon 
the Israelites in case of their disobedience. The 

* Forma 3?iHtD etiam est adv. septies. — Lev. xxvi. 18, 21. Ge- 
senius's Hebrew Lexicon, Leipsic ed. 1833, p. 979, column 2d. 

In the passages in Leviticus xxvi., there is no word in the 
original to correspond with the English word "times" as there 
is in Dan. iv. 



OF SYMBOLIZATIOX. 105 

language of that chapter is not descriptive of 
any symbolization which had been perceptible 
either naturally, or in dreams, or in ecstatic 
vision. -The prophecy is exclusively verbal, and 
therefore is not to be adduced either for or 
against the law in question. 

If it be further objected that the three years 
during which Isaiah was to walk " naked and 
barefoot," represented a three years' captivity of 
the Egyptians and Ethiopians, Is. xx. 3, 4, we 
answer that the Hebrew* phrase translated three 
years, does not necessarily belong to the emblem- 
atical condition of the prophet, but may be ren- 
dered as referring to the captivity of which that 
condition was a symbol, and then the meaning of 
the original will be, as in Bp. Lowth's version, 
" a sign . . of three years. "f So, also, the Yul- 
gate — "trium annorum signum."^: Bp. Lowth 
conjectures that the symbolical act of the pro- 
phet lasted only three days. If that was the 
fact, then this case, in respect to the point before 
us, resembles that of Ezekiel, who was directed 

* See Alexander in loco, 8vo. edition, 1846, p. 3*72. 

f Translation of Isaiah, with a preliminary dissertation and 
notes, by Robert Lowth, D.D., <fcc, Bishop of London, 8vo. 
London edition, 1825, pp. 113, 308, 309. 

X Antwerp Polyglott in loco, p. 58. 
5* 



106 THE SEVENTH LAW. 

to lie on his side " each day for a year" Ezek. 
iv. 6, and is precisely according to the law of 
symbols, the three days representing three years. 
No one can prove from the original Hebrew that 
the symbolical action of Isaiah continued longer 
than three days, and therefore this passage, Is. 
xx. 3, presents no valid objection to the law 
which we have endeavored to establish. 

The evidence, therefore, already adduced in 
support of the law, remains unimpeached, and 
most clearly and conclusively demonstrates that, 
in the circumstances stated in the law, days sym- 
bolise years. 



CHAPTEE X. 

Bbief Recapitulation, in which it is shown that the symbols 
interpreted in the prophecies are interpreted by these laws 
— that interpretations of one or more of each class of sym- 
bols are given in the prophecies — and that these inspired 
interpretations are to be regarded as a revelation of the 
principle applicable to all the symbols, and the laws by 
which they are framed revealed laws. 

"We have thus carefully examined the forego- 
ing laws of symbolization, and have sustained 
them by the most abundant scriptural evidence ; 
and from what has been already said it is mani- 
fest that THE SYMBOLS INTERPRETED IN THE PROPHE- 
CIES ARE INTERPRETED BY THESE LAWS. 

This we have shown in the case of a large 
number of inspired interpretations, and not a 
single instance can be adduced from the visions 
of the Hebrew prophets, or from the cases where 
those prophets or other real men were employed 
naturally as representative agents, or from the 
dreams respecting the great image and the great 
tree, in which prophetic symbols are interpreted 
in the sacred volume on any other principle. 
The exception in regard to the dream of Pha- 



108 RECAPITULATION. 

raoh, king of Egypt, has been shown not to 
affect the general laws of symbolization. It 
is evident, therefore, that the symbols inter- 
preted in the prophecies are interpreted by 
these laws. 

Again : — Interpretations of one or more of 

EACH CLASS OF SYMBOLS ARE GIVEN IN THE PRO- 
PHECIES. 

Among the symbols of each class of which, as 
we have shown in the previous descriptions, there 
is an inspired interpretation, either directly or by 
implication, in the context, may be mentioned 
the following : — ■ 

God the Father, Rev. iv., v. ; the Lamb, Rev, 
v., vi., xiv. ; the Word, Rev. xix, 13, which are 
divine : — 

Angels, devils, and men, Rev. xii. 7-12, &c. ? 
which are created intelligences : — 

Beasts, such as a lion, a bear, a ram, and a 
goat, Dan. vii., viii., which are unintelligent or 
irrational creatures : — 

A ten-horned wild beast, with iron teeth and 
nails, or claws of brass, a winged lion, a four- 
headed leopard, Dan. vii., which are monster 
animals : — 

Waters, Rev. xvii. 1, 15, which are a symbol 
from the natural world :— 



BECAPITULATIOX. 109 

Candlesticks, ■ Bev. i. 12, 20, and an image, 
Dan. h\, which are artificial objects : — 

A day symbolizing a year, which is a shorter 
period representing an analogous longer period, 
Ezek. iv. 6, " I have appointed thee each day for 
a year .•"-— 

The prophets Isaiah, Is. xx«, and Ezekiel, Ezek, 
iv., which are examples where real men, as dis- 
tinguished from those seen in vision, are by di- 
vine direction employed as symbols : — " 

The great image and the stone from the moun- 
tain, Dan. h\, and the fourth beast, Dan. vii., 
which are examples of symbolic agents and ob- 
jects existing only in dream or vision. 

Several of the above-mentioned symbols, as 
for instance, the waters and the candlesticks, are 
examples, also, of the proper in distinction from 
the monstrous. 

The act of the fourth beast, Dan. vii., in tram- 
pling on other animals, and the effect produced 
upon the great image, Dan. ii., by the agency of 
the stone, are examples in which an act symbol- 
izes an act, and an effect represents an effect ; 
and the strength of the iron and the brittleness 
of the clay, and their incapability of thorough 
union, are examples in which qualities, condi- 



110 RECAPITULATION. 

tions, and cliaracteristic relations,' have their cor- 
responding counterparts. 

So that it cannot be denied that inspired inter- 
pretations of one or more of each class of sym- 
bols are given in the prophecies. 

These inspired interpretations, therefore, 
are to be regarded as a revelation oe the prln- 



LAWS. 

If the uninterpreted symbols admit of any con- 
sistent exposition, it must be on the principle of 
analogy and resemblance as here stated ; and the 
fact that such a multitude of expositions of the 
symbols used have been given in the sacred vo- 
lume, according to this very principle of analogy 
and resemblance, and one or more of every class, 
should be regarded as conclusive evidence that 
these inspired interpretations are designed as the 
key to all symbols of a like character. History, 
also, in every instance accords with the prophe- 
cies as thus explained, so far as they have yet 
been fulfilled; and this corroborates the view 
which we have taken. 

Now, when by a large induction of facts a 
law has been demonstrated, in regard to mate- 



RECAPITULATION". Ill 

rial phenomena, and no fact can be brought for- 
ward at variance with the law, it is considered 
as settled. For the same reason we claim that 
these laws of symbolization, deduced from the 
inspired interpretations, and in every instance 
perfectly accordant with such interpretations, are 
to be considered as of universal application. 



CHAPTEE XI. 



Results of these laws. 



I. These laws obviate difficulties and give con- 
sistency and certainty to interpretation — proof 
and illustration of this by various examples, and 
particularly by an exposition of the drying up 
of the symbolical Euphrates, Kev. xvi. 12. 

II. These laws show that to spiritualize the 
symbolic prophecies is altogether wrong. 

III. The slaughter of the two apocalyptic wit- 
nesses, Rev. xi., foreshows a real, literal slaugh- 
ter of the faithful followers of Christ thus repre- 
sented — a slaughter which is yet future. 

IY. The antichristian powers are to be de- 
stroyed, not converted. 

V. There will be, anterior to the millennium, 
a real and literal resurrection of departed saints. 

VI. The second coming of Christ will be be- 
fore the millennium. 

VII. There will be men living in the natu- 
ral body on the earth after Christ's second 
coming. 



RECAPITULATION. 113 

Having thus demonstrated from the inspired 
volume the correctness of our laws of symboli- 
zation, we shall next consider some of their most 

IMPORTANT RESULTS. 

I. In the first place, it is evident from what 
has been already said, that these laws " obviate 
difficulties, remove uncertainties, supply import- 
ant defects, give consistency and certainty to in- 
terpretation, and lead to a clear and demonstra- 
ble explication of many symbols, of which no 
satisfactory solution is obtained by other systems 
of construction."* 

The truth of this remark will readily be per- 
ceived in its application to the first four seals, 
which we explained on pp. 38^L0 ; the two 
apocalyptic witnesses, pp. 52-58 ;f the binding 
of Satan, pp. 62-64 ; the first resurrection, pp. 
64^-76 ',% the seven heads and seven mountains, 
p. 88 (Note) ; the body of the beast, p. 89 
(Note) ; the harlot sorceress who rides upon the 
beast, and sits at the many waters, pp. 89-91 ; 
and the chronological periods, pp. 98-106. 

Commentators in general, in the exposition of 

* Circular respecting the Premium Essays — see Preface. 
f See also below, pp. 121-124. 
% See also below, pp. 126-131. 



114 RECAPITULATION. 

these and many other symbols which we have 
examined, have proceeded on no uniform and 
consistent scheme of interpretation. Thus, for 
example, Mr. Habershon and many others have 
adopted the principle of a day for a year, in re- 
gard to prophetical periods, but they have ap- 
plied it to cases where it is not admissible, as to 
the seven times, in the twenty-sixth chapter of 
Leviticus, and in the fourth of Daniel, which we 
have shown are not symbolical, the former de- 
noting the intensity of the chastisements which 
the Lord was to inflict on the Jewish nation in 
case of their disobedience; and the latter, the 
seven years' insanity of the king of Babylon. 
Mr. Elliott, who is one of the most learned and 
interesting writers on the Apocalypse, interprets 
the first four seals on the principle that the sym- 
bol is of the same species, order, rank, or kind, 
with the thing symbolized ; but, in his explana- 
tion of the dragon and wild beast, he tacitly as- 
sumes the opposite principle, that they are of a 
different species or order, but gives no rule or 
law by which the student, who wishes to ascer- 
tain the true meaning of the symbolical prophe- 
cies, can tell when he is to be governed by the 
former principle, and when by the latter. There 
is the same deficiency in many other expository 



RECAPITULATION. 115 

works of great erudition and research ; and the 
consequence has been, that most persons have 
well nigh given up all hope of obtaining any 
certain and satisfactory solution of a large part 
of the prophetic symbols. If it be alleged that 
our own expositions are liable to the same objec- 
tion, we answer no ; for we have clearly stated 
and abundantly proved the laws of symboliza- 
tion which apply to all such cases, pp. 34r-77 
(chapters iv. and v.). Many writers, also, in- 
stead of uniformly regarding symbols as repre- 
sentative agents, objects, &c, by means of which 
God revealed future events, have often spoken 
of them as if they were mere figures of speech. 
They have also interpreted symbolic agents as 
denoting abstract principles, explaining, for in- 
stance, the three unclean spirits, Rev. xvi. 13, as 
denoting three principles or systems, which is di- 
rectly contrary to the law that living agents re- 
present living agents, and not acts or effects, not 
principles or systems. But there is perhaps no 
one symbol which interpreters have more gene- 
rally misapprehended than " the great river Eu- 
phrates," Rev. xvi. 12. The exhibition of its 
true import, with the refutation of the prevail- 
ing false construction, will be sufficient for the 
further illustration of the topic before us. 



116 RECAPITULATION. 

" And the sixth angel poured ont his vial npori 
the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof 
was dried up." — Rev. xvi. 12. 

The river Euphrates flowed through ancient 
Babylon, which was situated by its " many 
waters," Jer. li. 13. That great city was the 
symbol, in the visions of the Apocalypse, of 
apostate and persecuting hierarchies within the 
ten kingdoms. But the waters are symbolical 
as well as the city ; and in all cases where the 
interpretation is according to analogy, such a 
symbol, as we learn from Eev. xvii. 15, denotes 
a multitude of people. "The waters which thou 
sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and 
multitudes, and nations, and tongues." The wa- 
ters of the Euphrates, therefore, in their symboli- 
cal import, must represent that mighty stream of 
people of different nations and languages, which 
sustains to the mystical Babylon a relation ana- 
logous to that which the literal Euphrates did to 
the literal Babylon. That ancient city was the 
commercial emporium of -the world, and, by 
means of that great river, received into its bo- 
som the wealth of the nations. From its im- 
pregnable ramparts the inhabitants laughed at 
all the efforts of the invader; and it was not 
until the trenches had been dug, and the waters 



RECAPITULATION. 117 

diverted, and the river reduced to a shallow mo- 
rass, that the conquest of the city could be ef- 
fected. In like manner, when the vast stream 
of peoples and nations, which has carried wealth 
into the mystical Babylon, is diverted from its 
former channel, and the symbolical river dried 
up, the " great city" must fall. Thus the mysti- 
cal Euphrates, Rev. xvi. 12, in symbolizing a 
grand obstacle to the downfall of the mystical 
Babylon, analogous to the literal Euphrates in 
its relation to the literal Babylon, denotes the 
great mass of people who have brought wealth 
and power to the apostate hierarchies. 

The common interpretation, however, has been 
that the Euphrates symbolizes the rulers of the 
Turkish Empire ; and consequently the drying 
up of its waters, the drying up of their resour- 
ces. But do the rulers of the Turkish empire 
support any hierarchies in "Western and South- 
Western Europe, the regions of the ten king- 
doms ? None whatever. Hence they sustain no 
such relation to the mystical Babylon as the 
literal Euphrates did to the literal Babylon, and 
therefore cannot be the persons symbolized. 

The interpretation was based upon Isaiah viii. 
7 S 8, where it is said — " ISTow, therefore, behold, 
the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of 



118 RECAPITULATION. 

the river strong and many, even the king of As- 
syria, and all his glory, and he shall come up 
over all his channels, and go over all his banks. 
And he shall pass through Judah," &c. The 
waters of the Euphrates, referred to in that pas- 
sage, were supposed .to symbolize the king of 
Assyria ; and hence it was argued, that as, in an- 
cient times, the waters of the river symbolized 
the Assyrian monarch who then reigned upon 
its banks, so, in modern times, they must sym- 
bolize those who now rule upon its banks, to wit, 
the Turkish dynasty. But in Isaiah viii. 7, the 
phrase " waters of the river" is not descriptive 
of a symbol. No such object was then presented 
to the eye of the prophet, either naturally or in 
vision, nor is there any evidence that in that pre- 
diction it is in any respect used symbolically. 
The prophecy is there given entirely through the 
medium of words, and not of symbols. The 
phrase quoted from Isaiah is simply a metaphor.. 
The king of Assyria, with his invading armies, 
is figuratively denominated " the waters of the 
river strong and many" and is therefore said to 
" come up over all his channels, and go over all 
his banks." That ancient monarch is the sub- 
ject of the elliptical affirmation, by which he is 
called the waters of the river, &c:, and the figure 



RECAPITULATION. 119 

consists in predicating something concerning him 
which in a certain relation he strongly resembled, 
but which, in the literal sense of the words, was 
incompatible with his nature, it being impossi- 
ble that a ci vil ruler, a human being, should be 
literally an inanimate river overflowing its banks. 
Hence the mistake of Mede, Edward Irving, Cun- 
inghame, Faber, Elliott, Bickersteth, and others, 
in the interpretation of the sixth vial, arose from 
confounding metaphors with symbols. It is the 
more important to notice that confusion, as it 
frequently occurs ; so much so that learned writ- 
ers even speak of the apocalyptic ]N"ew Jerusa- 
lem as a metaphor ! Whereas, instead of a meta- 
phor, it is a symbol, and the language which de- 
scribes it is for the most part literal, and tells 
exactly what St. John saw in the vision, namely, 
a beautiful and magnificent city adorned like a 
bride, and descending from heaven. That city, 
as we shall hereafter show, is the symbol of re- 
deemed and glorified men. 

The drying up of the mystic Euphrates is now 
going on, and shows us the precise spot which 
we occupy on the great chart of prophecy. But 
it is one of the singular anomalies in the history 
of Europe, that while a multitude of people are 
withdrawing their support from the papal hier- 



120 . RECAPITULATION. 

archies, especially in Germany and Italy, and 
in some parts of Ireland, and while the Pope is 
kept npon his throne by a foreign force against 
the wishes of the Italians, his influence as an 
ecclesiastico-political ruler, a horn of the beast, 
Dan. vii. 8, is so great as to convulse to its cen- 
tre a powerful country like England, and cause 
an agitation of which we have seen as yet only 
the beginning. 

II. In the next place, these laws show that to 
spiritualize the symbolic prophecies is altogether 
wrong. If, for example, as we have already prov- 
ed, living agents always denote living agents, and 
not mere abstract principles or systems, acts or 
effects, or inanimate objects, then the living Re- 
deemer, visibly descending from heaven, Rev. 
xix. 11-16, cannot denote Christianity ; the three 
frogs from out of the mouth of the dragon, and 
from out of the mouth of the beast, and from out 
of the mouth of the false prophet, Rev. xvi. 13, 
14, cannot symbolize lawlessness, despotism, and 
superstition; the "two witnesses" or "prophets,'? 
two living men prophesying twelve hundred and 
sixty days, and then slain and rising from the 
dead, Rev. xi. 3-12, cannot mean the Old and 
New Testaments. 

HI. In the third place, these laws Remonstrate 



KECAriTULATIUJS. 121 

that the slaughter of the two apocalyptic wit- 
nesses, Kev. xi., foreshows a real, literal slaugh- 
ter of the faithful followers of Christ thus repre- 
sented — a slaughter which is yet future. 

The beast from the abyss symbolizes the civil 
rulers of the ten kingdoms ; and the two wit- 
nesses represent certain churches and their line 
of ministers existing throughout the twelve hun- 
dred and sixty years, and bearing a faithful, tes- 
timony for Christ during that whole period. 

According to the laws of symbolization, living 
agents denote living agents, and acts foreshow 
acts. The act of the w T ild beast, therefore, in 
killing the witnesses, must symbolize a corre- 
sponding act on the part of those rulers towards 
these followers of Jesus. The slaughter of pious 
men by a ferocious beast, is well fitted to repre- 
sent the murder of such men by sanguinary rul- 
ers, the witnesses here symbolizing those of their 
own order, kind, or species, agreeably to a law 
already established ; but the mere act of silenc- 
ing their testimony, which has been the common 
interpretation, does not by any means come up 
to the full significance of the symbol. Those 
who advocate such an exposition maintain that 
that part of the prophecy has been already ful- 
filled, which is contrary to historical fact. Whe- 

6 



122 RECAPITULATION. 

tlier we explain the prediction as referring to two 
churches and their ministers, or give it a wider 
.application, the witnesses have never been si- 
lenced. The mere fact, upon* which so much 
stress is laid by Mr. Elliott, that those whom he 
considers the witnesses did not appear when sum- 
moned before a Papal Council, and the orator 
of the Pope exclaimed in triumph on the 5th of 
May, 1514 — jam nemo reclamat, nullus obsistit 
— " now no one gainsays, no one opposes" is no 
evidence that they were either dead or had 
ceased to testify for Jesus. The council itself, 
as Elliott has shown, was an autichristian abomi- 
nation, and the witnesses for Christ were under 
no obligation either to respect or acknowledge 
its authority. Such witnesses have never yet 
become wholly extinct within the territory of 
the old Western Roman Empire, and, ever since 
Christianity was planted there by the apostles, 
they have always testified, and do still testify for 
the. truth as it is in Jesus. Hence, as those of 
Christ's faithful followers who are represented by 
the two apocalyptic witnesses, have never been 
silenced, such an interpretation is inadmissible. 
It is inadmissible for two reasons : first, because 
it is contrary to analogy ; and next, because it is 
contrary to historical fact. Though from the ne- 



RECAPITULATION. 123 

cessity of the case, the symbol may sometimes 
fall short, in some respects, of the thing symbol- 
ized, yet as the latter never falls short of the for- 
mer, there must thus far be a correspondence 
between them ; and therefore the literal, corpo- 
real death of these two witnesses* must foreshow 
the corresponding death of those whom they re- 
present. Nothing short of that can come np to 
the significance of the symbol. If, as it has been 
well remarked, the symbolic act on the part of 
the wild beast had been a mere obstructing of 
the vocal organs of the two witnesses, then the 
silencing of their testimony might have been the 
thing foreshown. But the symbolic slaughter of 
the witnesses was something very far beyond a 
mere obstructing of the powders of speech, and 
has a corresponding analogy in nothing short of 
the literal and corporeal slaughter of those faith- 
ful followers of Jesus whom the witnesses repre- 
sent ; and therefore that is the event which is 
thus foreshown. 

Again, the slaughter here symbolized, Rev. 
xi., is yet future. 

* It is not formally mentioned that the symbolic witnesses 
were seen by the prophet in a state of corporeal death, but it 
is implied in the symbolic representation, described verses 11, 
12, Rev. xi., in which those witnesses were seen rising from 
death, and ascending to heaven. 



124 



KEC APITULATION . 



This is evident from two considerations : first, 
because there has never yet been, on a scale suf- 
ficiently comprehensive to correspond with that 
which is here foreshown by the symbols, a slaugh- 
ter of Christ's faithful followers by the rulers of 
the Western Empire, since the commencement 
of the twelve hundred and sixty years; and 
next, because the period during which those re- 
presented by the two witnesses were to continue 
their testimony, and then to be slain, Rev. xi. 2, 
7, has not yet expired. 

The two witnesses, as we have already seen, 
represent certain churches and their respective 
lines of pastors ; and the wild beast denotes the 
persecuting civil rulers of the ten kingdoms ; but 
when have these rulers ever yet slain all of those 
whom the two witnesses represent ? Never. 

Again, the commencement of the twelve hun- 
dred and sixty years cannot, with any probabili- 
ty, be dated earlier than the time when the Ro- 
man Catholic . religion was established bylaw 
throughout the ten kingdoms ; and as that ap- 
pears to have been either almost at the end of 
the sixth century, or soon after the beginning of 
the seventh, the period has not yet expired. It 
follows, therefore, that the epoch for that slaugh- 
ter of the witnesses which is foreshown in the 



RECAPITULATION. 125 

eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse, though not 
far distant, is still future. 

IY. In the fourth place, it is evident from 
these laws that the antichristian powers are to 
be destroyed, not converted. 

According to the laws of symbolization there 
is a resemblance or analogy between the symbol 
and the thing symbolized. Now, in the symbolic 
representation recorded Eev. xix. 20, the beloved 
disciple saw the beast and the false prophet 
" cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brim- 
stone." But there is no analogy or resemblance 
between such an event and the conversion of 
those here symbolized. It can foreshow nothing 
short of a terrible and remediless destruction. 

The same thing is evident from the symboli- 
zation in Dan. ii. 34, where it is said that the 
stone from the mountain smote the great image 
upon the feet, and crushed it in pieces. The de- 
struction of the great image by the stone clearly 
foreshows that the rulers symbolized by the im- 
age will meet with a corresponding destruction 
from those symbolized by the stone. As the 
fourth kingdom, Dan. ii. 40, was with its iron 
strength to " break in pieces " its adversaries, so 
the kingdom which God is to establish in the 
latter days is to " break in pieces and consume 



126 RECAPITULATION. 

all these kingdoms," and to "stand for ever," 
Ban. ii. M. The same crushing violence is pre- 
dicted, according to the inspired interpretation 
of the symbols, in the one case as in the other. 

So, also, in Dan. vii. 11, the utter destruction 
of the wild beast, and the giving of his body to 
the burning flame, can foreshow nothing short 
of an utter destruction of those whom the wild 
beast symbolized. The antichristian powers, 
therefore, are to be destroyed, not converted. 

It will not do to say that all that is foreshown 
by the destruction of the beast and the false pro- 
phet and their armies, is the destruction of their 
systems of error, for we have already demon- 
strated that living agents symbolize living agents, 
and not acts or effects, not principles or systems. 
See chapters I. and III. 

Y. In the fifth place, the laws of symboliza- 
tion demonstrate that anterior to the age of bless- 
edness, purity, and peace, commonly called the 
millennium, there will be a real and literal re- 
surrection of departed saints. 

This is evident from the symbolization in Rev. 
xx. 4. We have already proved that a real and 
literal resurrection is there foreshown.* Some 

* See the two resurrections discussed under the third law 
of prophetic symbols, pp. 64-75. 



RECATCTULATION. 127 

of the commentators object to such an interpre- 
tation of verses 4-6, on the ground that the Apo- 
calypse is a book of symbols, and that therefore 
it is absurd to suppose that a literal resurrection 
is here indicated ; but these very same commen- 
tators, with strange inconsistency, interpret verse 
twelfth, a little further on in the chapter, as de- 
noting precisely that kind of resurrection ! If 
the symbolic character of the book is a valid ob- 
jection to the interpretation which maintains 
that a literal resurrection is foreshown in verse 
fourth, it is equally so tq the interpretation which 
maintains that a literal resurrection is foreshown 
in versetwelfth. But the laws of symbolization 
demonstrate, as we have already proved, that 
both the one and the other are literal resurrec- 
tions, living agents representing living agents, 
acts denoting acts, and effects, effects ; the sym- 
bolic pre-millennial resurrection of the saints, as 
seen in the vision, Bev. xx. 4, foreshowing a cor- 
responding pre-millennial resurrection of the 
saints who are to be raised at Christ's coming ; 
and the symbolic post-millennial resurrection of 
the wicked, as seen in the vision, Rev. xx. 12, 
13, foreshowing a corresponding real resurrec- 
tion of that class at that epoch. The " blessed 
and holy" have part in " the first resurrection" 



128 BECAPITUL ATKXN". 

Bev. xx. 6 ; " the rest of the dead" Bev. xx. 5, 
have part in the second resurrection. 
. Again, it is expressly stated that the blessed 
and holy who have part in the first resurrection, 
reign with Christ during " the thousand years ;" 
and therefore their resurrection is anterior to that 
period. There is no reason to believe that at 
that epoch any of the holy dead will be left un- 
glorified. The symbolization represents a col- 
lection of persons sitting on thrones, among 
whom two classes are specified, first the mar- 
tyrs, and next those who had not worshipped the 
beast, neither his image, neither had received 
his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. 
There were many of this class who had not been 
slain. There were also multitudes of tne right- 
eous who lived before the reign of the beast ; 
and who, having been faithful servants of the 
Lord, will then be openly rewarded. These, 
doubtless, are included in the number of regal 
saints whom St. John saw sitting upon thrones. 
The crown, we are expressly told by St. Paul, 
will be given by the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
to all them that love his appearing, 2 Tim. iv. 8. 
The doctrine of the first resurrection, which 
in Bev. xx. 4, is taught through the medium 
of symbols, is implied in many passages which 



RECAPITULATION. 129 

describe no symbolic representation whatever, 
and which must, therefore, be interpreted by 
the laws of language. „ 

Take one from the Old Testament and one 
from the New to corroborate our conclusion. 

The doctrine under consideration is implied in 
Zech. xiv. 5. " The Lord my God shall come, 
and all the saints with thee." What this pre- 
diction means is clear from the similar language 
used by St. Paul in speaking of the second com- 
ing of Christ, and the resurrection of the saints 
— "To the end he may stablish your hearts un- 
blameable in holiness before God, even our Fa- 
ther, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
with all his saints," 1 Thess. iii. 13. The iden- 
tity of* language in the two cases shows that the 
event spoken of in Zechariah is the second com- 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in 
the flesh, attended by his risen and glorified 
saints ; and the context in Zechariah, that it is 
pre-millennial, for it precedes the destruction of 
the antichristian confederacy against Jerusalem, 
after which, as we learn from the concluding 
part of that chapter, the millennium is ushered 
in, and holiness generally prevails. 

This doctrine is implied, also, in Phil. iii. 11, 
where St. Paul represents himself as ready to 
6* 



130 RECAPITULATION. 

make any sacrifice, if lie could only " attain 
unto the resurrection from amongst the dead." 
The common reading of the Greek is tyjv !£*»«- 
(ttuti), t£v vsKpav, where the preposition U (which 
before a vowel becomes «|), in composition with 
the word uvccttuti^ makes the phrase equivalent 
to avocrrao-iv h 7&>v vtxpwv, and the literal translation 
is that which we have given above. The read- 
ing in the critical edition of the Greek Testa- 
ment by Dr. M. A. Scholz, of Leipsic, is still 
stronger, containing a repetition both of the 
article rov and the preposition *x — eh *^» eg«i«- 
G-Tcca-iv TYjt Ix vsxpav — unto the resurrection which 
is from out of dead ones. The resurrection here 
spoken of by the apostle is thus an eclectic re- 
surrection, the righteous being taken from out of 
the collective mass of the dead, and the wicked 
left behind. If there be no first resurrection, as 
distinguished from a second, if it be the purpose 
of God that both the righteous and the wicked 
shall rise simultaneously, why should St. Paul 
express it as the object of his highest hopes to 
attain unto the resurrection ? It was precisely 
for the very reason that there is such a distinc- 
tion as we have noticed, and that the first resur- 
rection, at the appearing of Christ, . when the 
regal saints are to sit with the Son of man upon 



RECAPITULATION. 131 

the throne of his glory, Rev. iii. 21, Matt. xxv. 
31, is the peculiar privilege of the righteous, that 
the apostle was pressing forward with untiring 
ardor, through evil and through good report, in 
order to obtain it. 

VI. In the sixth place, it is evident from these 
laws that the second coming of Christ will be 
before the millennium. 

The symbolization in Rev. xix., where the 
glorified Redeemer appears for the destruction 
of the antichristian rulers and their organized 
confederacy, clearly foreshows a personal and 
visible manifestation. His visible descent from 
heaven is evidently symbolical of his visible de- 
scent to the earth ; and his being followed by 
the risen and glorified saints on this work of re- 
tribution, shows that at the epoch denoted by 
the vision, their resurrection will have taken 
place. But the destruction of the antichristian 
confederacy is before the general prevalence of 
holiness and peace, or in other words, before the 
age of millennial blessedness. The coming, of 
Christ, therefore, which precedes that destruction 
must also be pre-millennial. 

It is only by false principles of interpretation 
that our opponents can avoid this conclusion. 
If, instead of spiritualizing the symbolic prophe- 



132 EECAPITULATION. 

cies, they admitted and followed the laws of 
symbolization which have been demonstrated in 
this Essay, they would grant that the second 
coming of Christ is before the millennium. 

Again, it is evident from the symbolization in 
Kev. xx. 4, as we have already proved, that the 
resurrection of the saints is pre-millennial ; but 
the Scriptures teach us that the second coming 
of Christ is at the same epoch — " Christ the first 
fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's at his 
coming," 1 Cor. xv. 23 — and therefore that com- 
ing is pre-millennial. 

The result at which we have' thus -arrived from 
the laws of symbolization, is corroborated by a 
multitude of unsymbolical prophecies. Take, for 
example, the verbal prediction in 2 Thess. ii. 8 
— " Then shall that wicked (or Lawless One, o 
uvopos) be revealed whom the Lord shall consume 
with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with 
the brightness of his coming." The whole con- 
text shows that the coming of which Paul speaks 
in that passage, is the second personal and visi- 
ble appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, which 
the Thessalonians thought was instantly impend- 
ing, and in view of which they had become agi- 
tated and alarmed. But as the destruction of 
Antichrist is admitted to be pre-millennial, the 



RECAPITULATION. 133 

personal and visible coming of Christ, to effect 
that destruction, must be pre-millennial also. 

VII. In the seventh place, these laws clearly 
show that there will be men living in the " natu- 
ral body " upon the earth after the second com- 
ing of Christ. 

The glorified church is symbolized in the Apo- 
calypse by the holy city, New Jerusalem, for 
that city, as we learn from Rev. xxi. 9, 10, re- 
presents the same class of persons as are denoted 
by the Bride, the Lamb's wife ; and in another 
vision, Rev. xix. 8, the Bride is exhibited as " ar- 
rayed in fine linen, clean and white," a symbolic 
badge which is explained as indicating "the 
righteousness of the saints," *•#» kyiw, and which 
identifies also the warrior horsemen who. follow 
the Lord Jesus Christ in his descent from heaven, 
Rev. xix. 11-21, on the work of retribution. 

Now, as the holy city New Jerusalem sym- 
bolizes the glorified church, the nations who 
walk in the light of that city, Rev. xxi. 24, and 
are thus distinguished from the city itself, must 
represent nations composed of living men in the 
" natural body," unglorified inhabitants of the 
earth at that epoch, who are to be guided by the 
teachings which Christ communicates to his re- 
gal, glorified saints, and through them, as his as- 



134 RECAPITULATION". 

sociate " Icings and priests" p*nXsts xcc) lepets, Rev. 
v. 10, xx. 6, to the subjects of their concurrent 
jurisdiction. And all this is clearly after the 
second coming of Christ, for it is not until that 
coming that the descent of those who are sym- 
bolized by the ISTew Jerusalem is to take place. 

Now it is clear that the regal saints who are 
associated in the dominion with Christ) are glo- 
rified men in the " spiritual body," and not un- 
glorified men in the "natural body ;" for neither 
in the symbolical nor the verbal prophecies are 
the men in the natural body ever exhibited as, in 
that state, reigning with Christ over the kings 
and nations of the earth. That is the prerogative 
of those who are symbolized by the New Jeru- 
salem, in whose light walk " the nations of the 
saved," and within whose walls "the kings of 
the earth do bring their glory and honor," Rev. 
xxi. 24. It is either by their resurrection from 
the dead, or by their living transfiguration into 
glory from the " natural" to the " spiritual," that 
men are exalted to the condition of those who 
are symbolized by that holy city. 

Among the regal saints must be classed the 
blessed and holy that had part in the first re- 
surrection, and were seen in the vision, Rev. xx. 
4, sitting upon thrones^ and who lived and reigned 



RECAPITULATION. 135 

with Christ during the thousand years. The men 
seen in that vision, as we have already shown, 
symbolize the real men who are to be raised in 
spiritual bodies at Christ's second coming, and 
exalted to thrones in the regeneration of glory. 

In the number of the regal saints must also 
be ranked, after their transfiguration, those be- 
lievers who at the epoch of Christ's advent to 
judgment (when he is descending to the earth 
to take possession of his throne, compare Zech. 
xiv. 4), are to be " changed in a moment, in the 
twinkling of an eye at the last trump," 1 Cor. 
xv. 51, 52, and caught up alive together with 
the risen saints to meet the Lord in the air, and 
to be, in consequence of this translation to glory, 
for ever with the Lord. In the language of the 
apostle — " The Lord himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch- 
angel, and with the trump of God ; and the dead 
in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are 
alive and remain shall be caught up together with 
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; 
and so shall we ever be with the Lord," 1 Thess. 
iv. 16, 17. That these translated believers are 
to be associated in the kingly sway with Christ 
and the risen saints, may be inferred from the 
promise which is made to every victorious be- 



136 RECAPITULATION. 

liever of sitting with Christ upon his throne, 
Rev. iii. 21 ; the promise that those who suffer 
with him shall also reign with him, 2 Tim. ii. 
12 ; and the express statement already cited from 
2 Tim. iv. 8, that the crown is for all that shall 
have loved the appearing of Jesus. 

Again, the destruction, which in the scenic re- 
presentation, Rev. xix. 11-21,* is exhibited as 
being accomplished by Christ and the warrior 
horsemen or glorified saints (compare Psalm 
cxlix. 9 — "to execute upon them the judgment 
written — this honor have all his saints"), is evi- 
dently the same as that which is foreshown by 
the crushing of the great image by the stone, 
Dan. ii. 34, 35. Hence the destroying agents, 
though represented in the two visions by differ- 
ent symbols, must be the same ; and therefore, 

* The False Prophet, Rev. xix., represents the same line of 
ecclesiastico-politieal chiefs that are symbolized, Dan. vii., by 
the little horn of the Fourth Beast. But that Fourth Beast 
symbolizes the same succession of rulers as are represented, 
Dan. ii., by the legs, feet, and toes of the great image. The 
rest of the Fourth Beast, Dan. vii., exclusive of the little horn, 
corresponds with the ten-horned beast of the Apocalypse. In 
our article in the Theological and Literary Journal for July, 
1851, pp. 116-133, we have shown by a multitude of distin- 
guishing characteristics that the Papal Dynasty is the one 
symbolized by that little horn. 



RECAPITULATION". lot 

the Icings symbolized by the stone, and whose do- 
minion was to extend over all the earth, Dan. ii. 
35, 44, are Christ and the glorified saints. 

Again, it is expressly revealed in Dan. vii. 27, 
compared with verse 14, that the regal saints 
(who, we have shown, are the glorified church) 
are, with Christ as their head, to exercise a do- 
minion over " all peoples (Chaldee, ^fafa^, in 
the plural), nations, and languages," verse 14, 
"under the whole heaven" verse 27, that is, 
" over all the earth" Zech. xiv. 9, there being 
thus a manifest distinction between the rulers of 
the kingdom and those who are its subjects. But 
the latter class, the subjects of the kingdom, 
those who are described by the words, " all peo- 
ples, nations, and languages" are evidently men 
in the " natural body," for such is undeniably 
the import of that phraseology. The same iden- 
tical words occur in Dan. vi. 25 (in the Chaldee, 
vi. 26), where they indisputably mean the living 
population of the globe, men in the natural body, 
speaking different languages, and inhabiting the 
earth ; for such were the men to whom Darius 
wrote. The passage is as follows, and settles the 
import of the phrase under consideration : " Then 
king Darius wrote unto all peoples, nations, and 
languages, that dwell in all the earth." The same 



138 RECAPITULATION. 

phraseology occurs with the same import in Ne- 
buchadnezzar's decree, Dan. iv. 1 (in the Chal- 
dee, iii. 31) — "Nebuchadnezzar the king unto 
all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in 
all the earth." There can be no question, there- 
fore, that the subjects here spoken of, and over 
whom Christ and the saints of the Most High 
are to reign, Dan. vii. 14, 18, 27, are men in the 
natural body, and that they dwell on the earth. 
It is just as clear, also, that this is after the com- 
ing of the Lord^ for the saints are not raised and 
glorified until that coming, and therefore cannot 
take possession of their kingdom till that epoch. 
Again, the symbolic coming of the Messiah 
with the clouds,, of heaven, Dan. vii. 13, as seen 
in the vision, foreshows his real, visible coming 
in the great day; and his symbolic investiture 
with the dominion over all the nations, the cor- 
responding real investiture with such a dominion 
at the epoch denoted. The dominion, therefore, 
exhibited in that vision, is a dominion which is 
to be manifested after Christ's second coming ; 
and as it is over men in the natural body, and 
living on the earth, it follows that there will be 
such men on the earth after that event ; and as 
the kingdom is to endure for ever, and the earth 
to be the scene of its manifestation, that there 



RECAPITULATION. 139 

are always to be in this " everlasting kingdom" 
of " all peoples, nations, and languages," Dan. 
vii. ltt, 27, ungloriiied subjects in the "natural 
body," as well as glorified rulers in the " spirit- 
ual body." 

Let this mass of evidence be impartially 
weighed, and the conclusion is irresistible that 
there will be men living in the " natural body" 
upon the earth after the second coming of 
Christ. 



CHAPTEK XII. 

Answer to objections against the seventh result. 

1. Objection from what is said in 2 Pet. iii., 
respecting the perishing of the earth by fire. 

2. Objection from the parable of the sheep 
and the goats, Matt. xxv. 31-46. The verbal 
prophecies confirm the view taken in the pre- 
ceding chapter. 

3. Objection from Christ's declaration, "my 
kingdom is not of this world," John xviii. 36. 

4. Objection from Christ's delivering up the 
kingdom, 1 Cor. xv. 24-28. 

5. Objection from the post-millennial revolt, 
Eev. xx. 7-9. 

6. Objection from the limited extent of the 
earth, and the insufficiency of its means of nu- 
trition. Moral impressiveness of the view here 
presented. 

If it be asked how can there be men on the 
earth after Christ's second coming; when it is 
said in the Scripture that the earth is to perish 



RECAPITULATION. 141 

by fire ? we answer, it is said also in the Scrip- 
ture, and in the same connexion, that the earth 
once perished by water, 2 Pet. iii. 6. If in pe- 
rishing by water the earth was not annihilated, 
it is just as possible that in perishing by fire the 
earth may not be annihilated. As the world 
that now is, emerged at the command of the 
Lord from the flood of waters, so the world to 
come, at the command of that very Lord, who 
is " the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," 
may emerge in new beauty and glory from the 
flood of fire ; and as by the providence of God 
a seed was left to replenish the earth after its 
baptism by water, so also by the providence of 
that same God, " who worketh all things " ac- 
cording to " the counsel of his own will," a seed 
may be left to replenish the earth after its bap- 
tism by fire. 

If it be asked how the preservation of a rem- 
nant of men in the natural body, after Christ's 
second coming, is compatible with the parable 
of the sheep and the goats, in the twenty-fifth 
chapter of Matthew, seeing that that parable in- 
cludes all the individuals of the then living popu- 
lation of the globe? we answer, that although it 
is probable that the phrase k^t* to. £h^ "all the 
nations" here denotes, exclusively, nations of 



142 RECAPITULATION. 

living men in the natural body, inasmuch as 
that is its general, and perhaps uniform import 
in the Scriptures, and as there is no intimation 
in the parable that those who are here spoken of 
are persons raised from death, still, whatever in 
that respect be the true meaning of the phrase 
in question, there is decisive evidence in the pa- 
rable itself, that that phrase does not include, in 
the most unrestricted sense, all the individuals 
of all the nations, and therefore presents no evi- 
dence against the fact that there may, neverthe- 
less, be other persons in the natural body besides 
those here called the sheep and the goats. When 
nations are spoken of in their collective capa- 
city, either as exerting an agency themselves, 
or as the subject of an agency exerted by others, 
the meaning commonly is, either that the official 
delegates and representatives of those nations, 
or else a multitude of individuals from among 
those nations, exert or are the subjects of such 
agency. Thus, when it is said in Zech. xiv. 2, 
" I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to 
battle," no one supposes that the phrase " all na- 
tions" means, in the most absolute and unlimited 
sense, every man, woman, and child, but a mul- 
titude of people from all those nations ; in that 
case, all the nations as represented by their ar- 



RECAPITULATION. 143 

mies. When Christ says to the disciples, Matt, 
xxiv. 9, " and ye shall be hated by all the na- 
tions," i™ TravTav tuv ifoav, it cannot mean all the 
individuals of all the nations, for, to say nothing 
of the. thousands of infants who cannot be sup- 
posed to have had these feelings of hostility, the 
disciples had many converts among the nations, 
and those converts must be exceptions. The 
phrase, therefore, in that passage, also denotes a 
multitude of people among all those nations ; and 
such is its import in the thirty-second verse of 
the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, where it is 
said, " and before him shall be gathered all the 
nations" -ruvra, tu ttvt) — that is, those who might 
be considered as in some sense representing all 
the nations. 

That this language does not include, in the 
most unrestricted sense, all the individuals of the 
earth's population, is evident from the fact that 
there are very many persons who, either from ex- 
treme youth, or from other causes, have not access 
to the sick, and the naked, and the hungry, and the 
imprisoned, and consequently have not perform- 
ed the deeds done in behalf of Christ's suffering 
disciples, by those called " the sheep" or been 
guilty of the cold neglect which is charged upon 
" the goats" It follows, therefore, that those who 



14:1 RECAPITULATION. 

are designated as " the sheep and the goats," 
will hy nor means include all the individuals of 
the nations living npon the earth at the epoch 
of Christ's second coming ; and hence the para- 
ble furnishes no evidence against the fact in 
question. 

That there will be a remnant of men in the 
natural body on the earth after Christ's second 
coming, is not only taught in symbolic prophecy, 
as we have shown in the preceding chapter, but 
is expressly stated in the verbal prophecies ; for 
example, in Isaiah lxvi. 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, and 
Zechariah xiv. 1-5, 16-18, where, after the com- 
ing of the Lord with all his saints^ Zech. xiv. 5, 
and his pleading " by fire and by his sword . . 
with all flesh," Isaiah lxvi. 16, compare 2 Thess. 
i. 7, 8, a remnant is still spoken of in such lan- 
guage as this : " And it shall come to pass that 
every one that is left of all the nations which 
came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from 
year to year to worship the King, the Lord of 
hosts," &c, Zech. xiv. 16 ; and, " I will gather 
all nations and tongues, and they shall come and 
see my glory. And I will set a sign among them, 
and I will send those that escape of them unto the 
nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the 
bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, 



RECAPITULATION. 145 

that have not heard my fame, neither have seen 
in j glory ; and they shall declare my glory 
among the Gentiles. And they shall bring all 
your brethren for an offering unto the Lord ont 
of ail nations, upon horses and in chariots, and 
in litters, and upon swift beasts, to my holy 
mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord," Is. lxvi. 
18, 19, 20. In the parallel passage in Zech. xiv. 
16-18, the nations or "families of the earth" 
are threatened with the deprivation of rain in 
case of their neglect to worship the King, the 
Lord of Hosts, in the manner prescribed ; and 
the nation or " family of Egypt . . . that 
have no rain," is threatened, in case of similar 
neglect, with "the plague." "Who can doubt 
that the planet on which we dwell, the material 
globe, is the place to be inhabited by the nation 
or family of Egypt, and the other families of the 
earth referred to in these passages, and that the 
nations spoken of are nations of living men in the 
natural body, at the epoch to which these pro- 
phecies refer ? The destruction from which they 
are to escape, as is evident from the context, is the 
one which is to occur at the coming of the Lord 
with all his saints, Zech. xiv. 1-5, and therefore 
this remnant is still to live after that coming.. 
That there is to be such a remnant on the earth 

7 



146 RECAPITULATION. 

in its renewed state, is still further evident from 
the description of the " new earth" in Isaiah lxv. 
1-7-25, where it is expressly said, in speaking of 
men living in the natural body at that epoch, 
that such men are to build, and plant, and have 
offspring — " they shall build houses and inhabit 
them ; and they shall plant vineyards and eat 
the fruit of them . . . they shall not labor 
in vain, nor bring forth for trouble ; for they are 
the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their off- 
spring with them," verses 21, 23, with which 
compare verse 17. Whatever difficulty, there- 
fore, there may be in reconciling such state- 
ments of the inspired word with other revealed 
truths, it is clear from these express declarations 
that there will be at that epoch on the "new 
earth" Isaiah lxv. 17, compare 2 Peter iii. 13, a 
seed of men in the natural life — men who, as we 
have already shown, are to be enlightened by 
instruction from the glorified saints — in the lan- 
guage of the Apocalypse, " nations " who are to 
" walk in the light " of the Holy City, New Je- 
rusalem, which is the symbol of those saints. 

If it be asked, again, how are these views con- 
sistent with Christ's declaration, John xviii. 36, 
"my kingdom is not of this world?" we answer, 
the unworldly nature and origin of Christ's king- 



RECAPITULATION. 147 

dom are in no respect incompatible with the ex- 
istence of men in the natural body on the earth 
after his second coming. If he can, at this pre- 
sent moment, administer an unworldly kingdom 
over men in the natural body — and that he does, 
our opponents believe as well as we — then most 
assuredly he can continue to administer an un- 
worldly kingdom over such men after his second 
coming. If the mere fact, that the subjects of 
Christ's kingdom are men in the natural body, 
would make it worldly then, that fact would make 
it worldly now. But as it confessedly does not 
have that influence now, neither will it then. 
How, therefore, does the declaration, " my king- 
dom is not of this world," prove that there will 
not be men in the natural body on the earth 
after Christ's second coming ? 

Again, according to the views of our oppo- 
nents themselves, the subjects of Christ's millen- 
nial sway will be men in the natural body on 
the earth : but if that fact make the kingdom a 
worldly one, then, on their own theory, Christ's 
administration during the thousand years would 
be a worldly administration ; and if in this con- 
sists the point of the objection, it is one which 
refutes itself. 

If it be said by our opponents, that they be- 



14:8 RECAPITULATION. 

lieve that during the millennium the king will 
be invisible, and that his presence and reign, in- 
stead of personal, will be exclusively spiritual, 
while on the other hand we maintain that the 
king will be visible, and his presence and reign 
personal as well as spiritual ; we answer, how 
does the fact of visibility necessarily make the 
kingdom a worldly one ? That fact will not alter 
the pure and heavenly principles of Christ's 
government, or nullify their celestial origin. 
If his high and holy administration is free 
from carnality, while he conceals himself from 
our view, where is the impossibility of its being 
wholly free from it after he appears in his 
glory? 

If it be said that we maintain that, after 
Christ's second coming, his glorified saints are 
to be associated with him in the kingly sway 
over all peoples, nations, and languages, under 
the whole heaven ? we answer, very true ; but 
that fact will not make the kingdom a worldly 
one. The principles of administration, instead of 
being imperfect or unjust, like those which often 
prevail in this world, will evince, by their unrival- 
led excellence, their heavenly origin. How, then, 
do the views which we have advocated conflict 
with Christ's declaration, "my kingdom is not 



RECAPITULATION. 149 

of this world?" The kingdom which he now 
administers does not partake of the corrupt spi- 
rit of the world, its principles did not originate 
in the world, and therefore it is certainly not a 
worldly kingdom ; nor will its visible manifesta- 
tion, after his second coming, entail upon it that 
character. It is now a kingdom over this world, 
and its subjects are in this world, and what 
is more, Christ the king was personally and 
visibly present in his humanity, when he said, 
" my kingdom is not of this world," and there- 
fore that declaration, does not necessarily imply 
either that the king will always be personally 
absent from this province of his dominions, or 
that he will have no subjects in the natural 
body on the earth after his second coming. But 
if Christ's kingdom is not now a worldly king- 
dom in any objectionable import of the term 
worldly, it is evident from what has been said 
that in no such import will it be a worldly king- 
dom " when he shall come to be glorified in his 
saints, and to be admired in all them that be- 
lieve." It will not be worldly either in its na- 
ture or its origin, for it is " not from hence" Its 
chief rulers will not be the dwellers in the flesh, 
they will be Christ and the glorified saints ; and 
the principles of their administration, instead of 



150 RECAPITULATION. 

being corrupt and selfish, like those which are 
now dominant in the world, will be pure and 
heavenly. 

But the futility of this objection will be still 
more apparent, when we turn to the context of 
the passage which is supposed to occasion the 
difficulty. 

Christ had been accused before Pontius Pilate 
of sedition, of plotting the overthrow of Caesar's 
government, in order to make himself a king in 
his stead. Pilate asked him, " What hast thou 
done ?" Jesus answered, " My kingdom is not 
of this world ; if my kingdom were of this world, 
then would my servants fight, that I should not 
be delivered to the Jews ; but now is my king- 
dom not from hence," John xviii. 35, 36. The 
phrase translated, " not of this world" — mn . . 
tx tov ■Koo-p.ov to'jtov — is, literally, " not from this 
world." The passage may be illustrated by the 
question which the Saviour put to the Jews, 
Matt. xxi. 25, "The baptism of John, whence 
was it ? i% from heaven, or Ig from men ?" The 
Greek preposition in John xviii. 36, is «, and in 
Matt. xxi. 25, the same preposition changed into 
\% before a vowel, and it means, from, out of 
Baptism was indeed a sacred rite of divine ori- 
gin / it was "from heaven" but nevertheless, it 



RECAPITULATION. 151 

was administered by John personally and visibly 
on earth. So in regard to the kingdom of Christ. 
Its origin is from the same sonrce with the bap- 
tism of John, " not from this world" but from 
heaven, and after the second coming of Christ it 
is to be administered by the Saviour and his 
glorified saints personally and visibly on the 
earth. As Jesus was accused of sedition, of ex- 
citing the people against the existing govern- 
ment, it was enough for him to say in answer to 
the question, "What hast thou done?" I have 
done nothing to justify the charge ; I have not 
^stirred up the people against Csasar ; for my 
kingdom is not of this world ; it is not of earth- 
ly but of heavenly origin ; it is not to be esta- 
blished by the might of armies in the flesh, 
or upheld by human power ; if it were, then 
would my servants fight that I should not be de- 
livered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom 
not from hence. Such appears to have been, sub- 
stantially, the import of our Saviour's answer to 
the Roman governor. The reply was pertinent 
to the circumstances of the case, and seems to 
have been satisfactory to Pilate. 

There is a very important sense, therefore, in 
which Christ's kingdom is " not of this world" 
but that fact is in no respect at variance with 



152 RECAPITULATIOISr. 

our position, that there will be men in the natu- 
ral body on the earth after his second coming. 

If it be asked, again, how are these views com- 
patible with what is said in the Bible respecting 
Christ's delivering up the kingdom, and conse- 
quently the termination of his office as Media- 
tor, and the cessation of man's existence on the 
earth in the natural body % we answer, that al- 
though the Bible speaks of an event called the 
delivering up of the kingdom, it nowhere says 
that there is ever to be a termination of Christ's 
office as Mediator, or such a cessation of the hu- 
man race. The passage referred to occasions no 
more difficulty for the millenarian than for the 
antimillenarian. That passage is as follows : 
" Then cometh the end, when he shall have de- 
livered up the kingdom to God, even the Father / 
when he shall have put down all rule, and all 
authority, and power. For he must reign till he 
hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last 
enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he 
hath put all things under his feet. But when he 
saith all things are put under him, it is manifest 
that he is excepted which did put all things un- 
der him. And when all things shall be subdued 
unto him, then shall the Son also himself he sub- 
ject unto him that jput all things under him. 



RECAPITULATION. 153 

that' God may oe all in all" 1 Cor. xv. 21- 
28. It is very true, that after the expiration 
of the millennium, and the final scenes of the 
judgment, death, the last enemy, shall be de- 
stroyed ; but where is it said in this passage that 
there is to be a termination of Christ's office as 
Mediator, or that men are to cease to exist on 
the earth in the natural body after Christ's se- 
cond coming ? There is not a syllable to that 
effect. To say that it is implied either in the act 
of delivering up the kingdom, or in the phrase, 
"then cometh the end" is a mere gratuitous as- 
sumption. On the contrary, we are taught in 
the Scriptures that Christ is to be " a priest for 
ever, after the order of Melchizeclec," Ps. ex. 1, 
Hebrews v. 6, vi. 20, vii. 21. As the existence 
of Christ in glorified humanity is eternal, it is 
therefore altogether possible that his priesthood 
should be eternal, and that, in the most absolute 
and unlimited sense, he should be " a high priest 
for ever" Heb. vi. 20. To say that the known 
nature of the subject limits the duration of that 
priesthood, and that therefore the words "for 
ever " must be taken in a qualified sense, is a 
mere begging of the question. The reason as- 
signed by the apostle why his priesthood is un- 
changeable, is because his existence is eternal) 
7* 



154 RECAPITULATION. 

and hence the fair inference from that fact is that 
this priesthood, which knows no change, is eter- 
nal also. After speaking of the mortality of the 
Jewish Levitical priests, the apostle adds, in re- 
spect to Christ : " But this man (Jesus), because 
he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priest- 
hood," Heb. vii. 24. If it be said that the word 
ever, as here used, is meant only to teach that 
as Christ continues to exist as long as the earth 
exists, therefore his priesthood can exist during 
that period, and that hence, as the existence of 
the earth is to cease, the priesthood must cease 
at the same time — we answer, that here again is 
a begging of one of the very points at issue, 
namely, that respecting the future eternity of 
this material globe. If it be said that the Scrip- 
tures speak of the burning up of the world, we 
answer, that we have already shown that it can- 
not be proved that the perishing by fire there 
spoken of, means the annihilation of the globe, 
for similar language is used by St. Peter re- 
specting the former destruction by water. The 
destruction by fire is to result not in annihilation, 
but in renovation. The earth is to be changed, 
not struck out of existence. The old world, that 
is, " the world that then was " before the flood, 
perished by water, 2 Pet. iii. 6. " The heavens 



RECAPITULATION. 155 

and the earth which are now," that is, the pre- 
sent earth with its surrounding atmosphere, is 
"reserved unto fire against the day of judgment 
and perdition of ungodly men," 2 Pet. iii. 7 ; but 
out of the wreck and ruin of that conflagration 
are to emerge, according to the promise, Isaiah 
lxv. 17-25, lxvi. 22, " new heavens and a new 
earth," that is, a new condition of the planet, 
with a new and purer atmosphere — " new hea- 
vens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness," 2 Pet. iii. 13. Where is it said'in the 
Scriptures that the new earth, that is, this mate- 
rial globe in its renewed condition, is ever to be 
destroyed ? Not a word to that effect. All that 
is said upon that subject would lead us to believe 
that the earth, after its baptism by fire, is to con- 
tinue for ever. As the priesthood of Christ and 
the existence of the earth, as it respects the fu- 
ture, are to be eternal, so, also, according to the 
decisive evidence already presented, both from 
the symbolic and the verbal prophecies, there 
are to be men on the earth in the natural body 
after Christ's second coming, and as Christ ever 
liveth to make intercession for them, and present 
before his Father the infinite merits of his aton- 
ing sacrifice and death, the human race upon the 
earth, for aught that is said to the contrary, 



156 RECAPITULATION. 

may exist for ever, and a blessed immortality, by 
virtue of the redemption which is in Christ Je- 
sus, be given to them as the reward of their obe- 
dience. Those who are cast into the lake of fire 
are of course irretrievably lost, and remain an 
awful monument of God's inflexible abhorrence 
of sin ; but as to those who, when death shall 
have been abolished, exist upon the earth in the 
natural body, after the last resurrection and final 
act of the judgment, the work of salvation may 
go on for ever. 

"We return to the question respecting Christ's 
delivering up the kingdom. 

If the Father has intrusted to Christ a sceptre 
which the Saviour now wields over the universe — 
a sceptre which he is to continue to wield till the 
close of the millennium — and which, after the sub- 
jugation of all his foes, he is to return to him whc 
gave it, that he may ever afterwards exercise 
his dominion in subordination to the Father, 
" that God may be all in all," 1 Cor. xv. 28, is it 
not just as possible for him in that new form of 
administration in which " the Son also himself 
shall be subject to him that put all things under 
him " — is it not just as possible for him to exer- 
cise a dominion over men, and that, too, over 
men in the natural body, provided that there are 



RECAPITULATION. 157 

then such men — is not this just as possible as it 
ever was? Most assuredly. How, then, does 
the delivering up of the kingdom prove that the 
existence of the human race in the natural body 
is to cease ? The fact under consideration affords 
not the slightest ground for that conclusion. Is 
it not just as possible, also, for Christ to deliver 
up the sceptre of millennial and pre-millennial 
rule, when he lias visibly appeared, and visibly 
reigned during the thousand years" as it would 
be if he had, through that whole period, "kept 
himself concealed from the vieiv of his earthly 
subjects f If the mere fact of visibility renders 
such a delivery impossible, if it cannot be done 
because there is a public manifestation of the 
splendors of his kingdom, then, our opponents 
themselves being judges, it cannot be done at 
all, for, according to their view, Christ is not 
only now visible in heaven, but is to continue 
thus visible there through the whole period of 
the millennium, and is to be visible somewhere, 
when " every eye shall see him," Rev. i. 7, in 
the scenes of the judgment. What difference, 
then, does it make in regard to the possibility of 
delivering up the kingdom, whether Christ's 
visible appearance take place before the mil- 
lennium, or be delayed till after it is ended ? 



158 EECAPITULATIOK. 

None whatever. This delivering up of the king- 
dom, therefore, is no argument either against 
Christ's pre-millennial advent and personal reign, 
or against the existence of the human race in 
the natural body on the earth after his second 
coming. 

The order of events, as stated by the apostle, 
is this — •" Christ the first fruits " — he passes over 
the interval between the first and second advents 
— " afterward, *»■£<*■*, they that are Christ's at his 
coming " — he passes over again the interval be- 
tween the first and second resurrections — " then 
(«V*,* afterward), the end" — the end of that 
chapter in Christ's high and holy administration 
— the end of his possession of that sceptre which 
he is to deliver up after the close of the millen- 
nium, and the subjugation of all his foes, that he 
himself also may be " subject unto him that put 
all things under him, that God may be all in 
all," 1 Cor. xv. 23, 24, 28. The apostle is speak- 
ing of the resurrection of the body, and events 
connected therewith, " As in Adam all die, even 

* This is a particle denoting succession, not contemporaneous- 
ness, as is evident from Mark iv. 28, where we have this very 
particle eha — "For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; 
first the blade, then (Jra, afterward) the ear, after that (elra) 
the full corn in the ear." 



RECAPITULATION. 159 

so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every 
man in his own order (literally, in his own hand) ; 
Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are 
Christ's at his coming. Then (or afterward) 
cometh the end" the end of that stage in his go- 
vernment, and the opening of a new scene in 
the history of the universe. If at that period 
death is to be abolished, and Christ to deliver up 
the sceptre which he has previously held, his 
enemies having been subjugated for ever, it is 
certainly a most marked epoch, and well may it 
be said, " afterward cometh the end" as there is 
an end of that particular form of rule which he 
will have thus far exercised. But where is there 
any intimation in this passage either that the 
work of the Mediator in sending his Holy Spirit 
to secure his subjects in obedience is to cease, or 
that men are no longer to exist in the natural 
body on the earth? There is none whatever. 
If the continued existence of the race in the 
natural body on the earth is elsewhere taught in 
God's sacred word, there is nothing to conflict 
with that fact in what is meant by Christ's deli- 
vering up the kingdom, and the consequent ter- 
mination of that stage in his government, for it 
is clearly taught in the Scriptures, and admitted 
by all believers in the Bible, that in some form 



160 RECAPITULATION. 

of administration, Christ will " reign for ever 
and ever," Rev. xi. 15 ; that " of his kingdom 
there shall be no end," Luke i. 33 ; and that 
" his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which 
shall not pass away," Dan. vii. 14. But that 
" dominion " is a dominion over " all peoples, 
nations, and languages," ib., " under the whole 
heaven," Dan. vii. 26, " over all the earth," Zech. 
xiv. 9, phraseology which, as we have already 
proved, denotes men in the natural body on the 
earth, the subjects of that kingdom which is to 
be administered by Christ and the glorified 
saints. He is therefore to reign for ever, to be 
a priest for ever, a priest on his throne, and his 
glorified saints are to reign with him everlasting- 
ly. Is it not, then, perfectly compatible, that 
after what is called the delivering up of the king- 
dom, Christ, the Son of Man, with his beloved 
Bride, should be subordinate in office to the 
Eternal Father, and that at the same time the 
nations of living men should also be subor- 
dinate to them, and be holy and happy under 
their righteous and beneficent sway? Most 
assuredly. How, then, is there any incompati- 
bility between this delivering up of the kingdom 
and the views which we have exhibited ? Or 
how does that delivery prove either that Christ's 



RECAPITULATION... 161 

office as Mediator is to cease, or that there will 
no longer be men in the natural body after 
Christ's advent to judgment? 

The Scriptures have said but little respecting 
Christ's delivering up the kingdom to the Fa- 
ther, but aside from that, enough is revealed to 
prepare us for his coming. It is not necessary 
that we should, at present, know all the particu- 
lars of his millennial and post-millennial reign, 
or be able to explain the precise mode in which 
God will accomplish his high counsels of justice, 
mercy, and love. Our faith should rest in the 
facts, simply as they are revealed. It is enough, 
at present, for us to know that the sure word of 
prophecy informs us that Christ will, at his glo- 
rious appearing, raise from the dead the church 
of the first born, and translate those who are 
alive and remain, and love his appearing; that 
he will execute judgment on those who at his 
second comma; are found in organized confe- 
deracy against him, and indeed upon all men 
in the natural life, except those whom, as the re- 
ward of their affectionate faith, he changes from 
mortal to immortal, and those whom in his infi- 
nite wisdom he saves from the general destruc- 
tion, and leaves as a seed to replenish the earth, 
and to serve and obey him ; that there will be 



162 EEC APITUL ATIOK. 

an overwhelming and irremediable discomfiture 
of those of his unglorified subjects, who revolt 
from his sway at the expiration of the millen- 
nium, after Satan is loosed out of prison, and 
goes forth to deceive the nations ; that he will 
raise the unholy dead to inflict upon them, in 
body and soul, in that complex nature in which 
they have sinned, the just recompense of their 
deeds ; and that, having made this impressive 
demonstration of his supreme hatred of sin by 
the punishment of the wicked, he will abolish 
death, and reign for ever, in subordination to the 
Father, and in blissful association with his glo- 
rified church, " the Bride, the Lamb's wife," over 
a holy and happy creation. 

If then it be asked again, how is the visible 
reign of Christ and the glorified saints over men 
in the natural body during the period represent- 
ed by the thousand years, compatible with what 
is foreshown in Rev. xx., respecting the post-mil- 
lennial revolt? we answer, that such a revolt 
will be just as possible, if Christ and the saints 
shall have been reigning in visible glory over 
such subjects, as if he alone, without these asso- 
ciate rulers, had been reigning over them in in- 
visible glory. Probation is just as possible in 
the personal presence of Christ as in his absence. 



RECAPITULATION". 163 

The angels who, when on probation, rebelled 
against God, were doubtless in the presence of 
the Eternal Son, and if such probation was pos- 
sible to angels, how does it appear that proba- 
tion, when Christ is personally present on earth, 
is per se {in itself) impossible to men ? If Satan, 
with no one to seduce him, could rebel in heaven, 
then most assuredly man, when tempted by Sa- 
tan, can revolt on earth. If the personal presence 
of the Son of God did not prevent the fall" of 
Satan, an archangel of transcendent powers, when 
comparatively free from temptation, how will 
that presence necessarily prevent the disobe- 
dience of unglorified men, beings of very inferior 
powers, and in the case before us, under circum- 
stances of very strong temptation? Miraculous 
displays of divine power do not always prevent 
transgression. The children of Israel at the foot 
of Mount Sinai, after they had heard the voice 
of the living God, and seen the manifestations 
of his special presence, worshipped a golden 
calf; our first parents in Paradise, when perfect- 
ly holy, and enjoying the most intimate com- 
munion with their Creator, were seduced by the 
machinations of Satan ; nay, in heaven itself, as 
we have just said, angels fell from their high es- 
tate, and revolted against the throne of God ; 



164 RECAPITULATION. 

and in view of such facts, held by anti-millena- 
rians themselves, where is the impossibility that 
Satan, when loosed out of prison, should suc- 
ceed in deceiving a vast multitude among the 
nations, notwithstanding the visible displays of 
glory from Christ, their king ? However quiet 
and peaceable they may have been under the 
dominion of Christ and the regal saints, while 
Satan was shut up in the abyss, and thus debar- 
red from tempting them to evil, where is the im- 
possibility of their revolting from that sway 
when Satan is loosed, and goes forth to deceive 
them ? Such a revolt, therefore, is possible even 
among many who have lived during the millen- 
nium. It cannot, however, be proved that it ex- 
tends to them. "Whether it does, we know not. 
It may, perhaps, be confined to their descend- 
ants, to individuals living after the thousand 
years are ended. "We are not told in the Scrip- 
tures how long is that " little season," Rev. xx.' 
3, in which Satan will once more be permitted 
to practise his wiles. It may be short, compared 
va.th the vast period denoted by the thousand 
years, and yet be long enough for him to exert 
his agency on a very large scale. "New genera- 
tions may grow up in that time, embracing many 
individuals who do not give their hearts to 



RECU'ITULATION. 165 

Christ, individuals whom, in their comparative 
inexperience, it may be very easy for Satan to 
seduce in great numbers into open rebellion. In 
view, therefore, of all these facts, how does this 
post-millennial revolt conflict with the probation 
which Scripture elsewhere informs ns will be 
given to those that are left from among the na- 
tions, and to their posterity ? — a probation after 
the second coming of Christ, to men living in 
the natural body on the earth. There is no "dis- 
crepancy whatever. But though successful in 
deceiving vast multitudes to their ruin, Satan 
suffers a final and hopeless defeat — his army is 
destroyed by the special interposition of God — 
and he himself consigned to the lake of fire, to 
be with those who are denoted by the beast and 
the false prophet, and to be "tormented day and 
night, for ever and ever," Rev. xx. 7-10. 

The glorified saints have no part in that apos- 
tasy. Faithful to Christ as his Bride, united 
to him in bonds of the most ardent and unwaver- 
ing love, secured in their holy and happy state 
by an everlasting covenant, they shall continue 
to reign upon Immanuel's throne for ever and 
ever, Rev. iii. 21, Dan. vii. 18, 27, Rev. xxii. 5. 
• The remnant of the human race in the natural 
body, those who have not been engaged in the 



166 RECAPITULATION. 

post-millennial rebellion, confirmed in their alle- 
giance by the influence of God's Holy Spirit, and 
by these awful judgments on the disobedient, 
will never revolt from the dominion of Christ, 
and the saints. Death, the last enemy, will be 
destroyed ; and, the curse having been removed, 
God will look forth upon his work and pro- 
nounce it, as it was when it first came from his 
hands, to be very good. 

The post-millennial revolt, therefore, is no va : 
lid objection to the existence of men in the natu- 
ral body after Christ's second coming. There are 
to be such men on the earth till the closing scenes 
of the judgment, and for aught that the Bible 
says to the contrary, there will be such men here 
through eternal ages. That, indeed, as we have 
already shown, is a legitimate inference from the 
fact that the kingdom of Christ and the gloriried 
saints is an everlasting kingdom, and its subjects 
for ever, the men of all' peoples, nations, and. 
languages, under the whole heaven. 

If, then, it be asked once more, how is that 
possible, in view of the limited extent of the 
earth, and the insufficiency of its means of nutri- 
tion, what can be done with so vast a population 
as there will necessarily be after death shall have 
been abolished, and men have continued to mul- 



[RECAPITULATION. 1 6 7 

tip] j through innumerable ages ? where can they 
find space to dwell, or food to sustain them ? we 
answer, there is no more difficulty in this case 
than there would have been if our first parents 
had not sinned, and death had never visited the 
race. The omnipotent Jehovah has resources in- 
exhaustible, and we doubt not that he will be 
able to provide for the exigency. Successive 
generations, after being trained up for glory, 
may be changed from the natural to the spiritual 
body, and translated alive into a more exalted 
state as the reward of their obedience. 

How vast, therefore, is the salvation which 
Christ is to accomplish ! How inconceivably 
sublime are the results which shall send a thrill 
of ecstasy through all the obedient provinces of 
his exulting empire ! What heaven can be more 
glorious or more desirable than a world rescued 
from the grasp of Satan ; emancipated from, 
death and sin ; delivered from the curse ; enli- 
vened by the songs of countless myriads who will 
chant hallelujahs to God and the Lamb, when the 
tabernacle of God shall be with men, and he shall 
dwell among them ; a world cheered by the per- 
sonal as well as spiritual presence of Jesus ; and 
governed by an administration perfect in wisdom 
and strength, holiness and love ? Give me such 



168 RECAPITULATION. 

a world, full of beings who are perfectly good 
and perfectly happy, in the presence of Christ, 
their Lord and Life, and I want no other heaven 
' — give me, as a glorified saint, a share in that 
dominion which Christ has pledged to his belov- 
ed Bride, and let me have the promise and oath 
of God that this bliss shall know no end — that I 
with all his chosen shall be for ever holy and for 
ever happy — and I ask no more. I want no other 
paradise than snch a world, with such inhabit- 
ants, and such enjoyments. I will rejoice with 
all my soul in the " new heavens and new earth 
wherein dwelleth righteousness." 

If, as our opponents must admit, the scene in 
which, when raised from the grave and re-united 
to the soul, the bodies of the saints are to reside, 
is a material place, and if the most essential ele- 
ments of its blessedness are the presence of Christ 
•and holiness in the believer's heart, why then, so 
far as the mere locality is concerned, will not the 
new earth, surrounded by a pure and healthy 
atmosphere, and gladdened by the most tender 
and sacred associations, be just as good a heaven 
for the abode of the righteous, as some other 
place, in some distant quarter of the universe ? 
Why will not this be as good a point as any other 
from which Jehovah may send forth glorified 



RECAPITULATION. 169 

saints on missions of love to his dependent pro- 
vinces ? 

Let the universe be ever so vast — let the tele- 
scope reveal system after system, throughout a 
crowded immensity — let suns, and planets, and 
stars, be indefinitely multiplied, still there must 
be some spot which shall be the metropolis of 
the universe ; some favored place where the 
Deity specially manifests his presence ; some 
palace-royal, where Jesns our king appears in 
his glory, and from which he sends forth minis- 
tering spirits to execute his behests ; and why, 
then, may not the renewed earth be the pavilion 
where he shall hold his court ? why may not this 
globe, on which he suffered and died — the scene 
of his humiliation — become the theatre. of his 
triumph and tabernacle for ever ? 



CHAP-TEE XIII. 

Results — (Continued.) 

VIII. The millennium is to continue tnree 
hundred and sixty thousand years. 

IX. A series of the most stupendous events is 
not very far distant. 

Having thus answered, and we hope satisfac- 
torily, the main objections to the existence of 
men in the natural body on the earth after Christ's 
second coming, we shall notice, and that very 
briefly, but two other results of the laws of sym- 
bolization. 

VIII. In the eighth place, these laws demon- 
strate that the millennium is to continue during 
three hundred and sixty thousand years. 

We have already shown, that according to the 
mode of reckoning in Daniel and St. John, the 
equivalent expression for one thousand years. 
Rev. xx. 4, is three hundred and sixty thousand 
days, and that those days symbolize the same 
number of astronomical or solar years. 



RECAPITULATION. 171 

Take, therefore, the view to which we are led 
by the laws of symbolization, and what noble 
conceptions does this interpretation give us of the 
redemption which is in Christ Jesus! During 
these three hundred and sixty thousand years, 
under the beneficent sway of Christ and his glo- 
rified church, the boundless population of this 
rejoicing planet, . undisturbed by the machina- 
tions of Satan, will walk in the paths of the Lord 
their Redeemer. What immense additions will 
be made to the happiness of the universe during 
the mighty roll of that vast succession of ages ! 
While " the god of this world," 2 Cor. iv. 4, has 
rule, there are many who walk the broad road 
to destruction, and comparatively few that are 
saved; but' ultimately, as God's plans become 
developed in the full manifestation of Messiah's 
reign, the number of the lost will bear but a 
small proportion to that countless throng who 
ascribe their eternal deliverance to God and the 
Lamb ! Well may we exclaim — " Great and 
marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty ; 
just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints I" 
Rev. xv. 3. 

It is not to be inferred, however, that the reign 
of Christ and the saints is to cease at the expira- 
tion of the millennium. In the first part of the 



172 RECAPITULATION. 

twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse, it is men- 
tioned that Satan, according to the symboliza- 
tion witnessed, was shnt np in the bottomless pit. 
The symbolical period of his confinement is 
stated to be a thousand years ; and then it is 
added, that during that period the saints lived 
again, and reigned with Christ. That, however, 
is only the first grand epoch of their associate 
sway. The sovereignty of Christ and his belov- 
ed Bride is to endure through eternal ages. Thus 
it is declared respecting the Messiah, in Dan. 
vii. 14, "his dominion is an everlasting dominion, 
which shall not pass away ;" in Luke i. 33, " he 
shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever y 
and of his kingdom there shall be no end /" and 
in Rev. xi. 15, "he shall reign, for ever and ever." 
The same thing is said of the glorified saints in 
Rev. xxii. 5, "they shall reign for ever and 
ever y" in Dan. vii. 18, " the saints of the Most 
High shall take the kingdom, and possess the 
kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever y" and 
in verse 27, as Professor Stuart renders the Chal- 
dee, " their kingdom shall be an everlasting king- 
dom, and all dominions shall serve and obey 
them."* 

* The pronoun in the original is ft3> which means it, and 
refers for its antecedent to the word "people," and therefore, 



RECAPITULATION. 173 

IX. Iii the ninth and last place, thene is rea- 
son to believe that a series of the most stupen- 
dous events is not very far distant. 

The destruction of the antichristian rulers, 
civil and ecclesiastical, is to take place under the 
seventh vial, Rev. xvi. 17-21, xvii., xviii., xix. 2, 
11-21, and, as we have already shown, p. 119, 
we are now living under the sixth. Those who 
are symbolized by the apocalyptic witnesses 
testify to the truth as it is in Jesus, throughout 
the twelve hundred and sixty years ; and accord- 
ing to the general opinion of the best interpre- 
ters of Scripture, more than twelve hundred 
years of that period* have already elapsed. 

The slaughter of the witnesses, therefore, the 
gathering of all the chief rulers of the world, 
Rev. xvi. 11, to a general war, the second com- 
ing of Christ, the resurrection of the saints, the 
overthrow of those denoted by the Beast and 
False Prophet, the binding of Satan, and the age 
of millennial blessedness, are at hand. 

according to the English idiom, must be rendered in the plu- 
ral. " And the kingdom and dominion, and power of the king- 
doms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of 
the saints of the Most High ; their kingdom shall be an ever- 
lasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them" 
Dan vii. 27. 

* See above, p. 124. 



CHAPTEK XIY. 



Conclusion. — Practical Reflections — the impending crisis. — 
state of the visible church — duty of investigating all the 
Scriptures — testimony of the Holy Ghost to the utility of 
studying unfulfilled prophecy — grandeur of redemption — 
the ease with which the laws of symbolization may be mas- 
tered, and made the means of a large and useful knowledge 
of the prophecies — the claims of the subject upon the atten- 
tion of Christians in general, and especially of ministers 
and teachers of the word — exhortation to trust and obey 
the Lord — origin, grandeur, and duration of the kingdom 
of Christ. 



If these things are so, we are on the eve of 
a crisis unprecedented in the history of the 
world ! But how utterly unprepared for these 
events is the great body of the visible church ! 
The professed worshippers of the Lord are, for 
the most part, sunk in spiritual lethargy, wedded 
to sensual pomps and vanities, and unmindful 
of their high obligations as the betrothed of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

When St. Paul wrote his second letter to the 
Thessalonians, they were apprehensive that the 
second coming of Christ in glorious majesty was 
immediately impending. The apostle told them 



RECAPITULATION. 175 

that there must first be the rise of the apostasy, 
2 Thess. ii. 3, and the manifestation of the man 
of sln. For more than twelve centuries there 
has been a most fearful apostasy from the truth 
as it is in Jesus; and the Papal "False Prophet," 
whom many believe to be the Man of Sin, has 
long exerted his blasphemous and persecuting 
agency. Kearly eighteen hundred years have 
passed away since Paul wrote to the Thessalo- 
nians, and therefore we are so much nearer to 
the second coming of Christ, by which the Man 
of Sin is to be destroyed, 2 Thess. ii. 8. But 
alas ! how many there are who " know not, nei- 
ther will they understand ; they walk on in dark- 
ness," Ps. lxxxii. 5. 

"We rejoice, however, that the prejudice 
against the study of prophecy is gradually giv- 
ing way before the march of enlightened in- 
quiry. The command of the Saviour is, " Search 
the Scriptures," John v. 39, and this compre- 
hensive injunction includes the prophetical, as 
truly as the devotional. If the study be not use- 
ful, why does the Lord enjoin it, and why did 
the Saviour reprove the two disciples who were 
travelling to Emmaus, for being so "slow of 
heart to believe all that the prophets have spok- 
en ?" Luke xxiv. 25. If the fair and candid in- 



176 RECAPITULATION. 

terpretation of prophecy be not beneficial, why- 
did the Saviour begin " at Moses and all the 
prophets," and expound " nnto them in all the 
Scriptures the things concerning himself?" Luke 
xxiv. 27. If it be said, that when ministers and 
private Christians have as much wisdom and as 
much self-control as the Saviour, they too may 
be permitted to expound the prophecies, we re- 
ply, that of course no such claim is advanced ; 
but if the true principles of interpretation are 
revealed hi the word of God, as we have endea- 
vored to show in this Essay, then we have a safe 
guide, and ought to use it. If it be inexpedient 
to note the signs of the times, and to compare 
the indications of God's providence with the tes- 
timony of his word, why did the Saviour reprove 
the men of his day for their voluntary blindness? 
Matt. xvi. 3. Alas, through wilful negligence, 
they knew not the Lord of glory ; and hence, 
were led to set their seal and sanction to the 
wickedness of all preceding ages, Matt, xxiii. 35, 
by crucifying their own Messiah, their God and 
king ! "We ask, again, if such expositions be not 
advisable, why did the Lord, by the prophet 
Daniel, explain to Nebuchadnezzar the meaning 
of his dream, concerning a long series of events 
from his own day to the setting up of the king- 



RECAPITULATION. 177 

dom of Jesus Christ? " There is a God in hea- 
ven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to 
the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the 
latter days," Dan. ii. 28, compare verse 45. If 
a revelation has been made, it is most assuredly 
our duty to try to understand it, and be wise up 
to what is written. 

But we are not left on this point to mere in- 
ference. The Holy Ghost hath expressly de- 
clared, not only that "all Scripture is given by in- 
spiration of God," but that it is " profitable for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- 
tion in righteousness ; that the man of God may 
be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works," 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. God pronounces all 
Scripture to be profitable for instruction, and 
other practical purposes — " all good works." 
Man, on the other hand, says that a part of it, 
and a large part of it too, is unprofitable ! I need 
not ask which is of the highest authority — the wis- 
dom of God, or the opinions of men. See 1 Cor. 
i. 25, iii. 19. And if all of the sacred volume 
be useful for instruction, then it is the duty of 
every minister to study the prophetic Scriptures, 
the symbolic as well as the unsymbolic, and 
make their exposition a part of his pulpit minis- 
trations. In 2 Pet. i. 19, it is written — " We 
8* 



178 RECAPITULATION. 

have also a more sure word of prophecy ; where- 
unto ye r/o well that ye take heed, as unto a light 
that shineth in a dark place." God declares that 
we do well to take heed to it. Man, on the other 
hand, affirms that we have nothing to do with 
it ; that the study of prophecy is useless, and 
even pernicious ; and that to investigate it tho- 
roughly, according to our ability and opportuni- 
ty, as the command clearly implies, is the mark 
of extravagance and folly! Now, as if the di- 
vine Spirit would expressly put us on our guard 
against such "enticing words of man's wisdom," 
1 Cor. ii. 4, it is declared in the third verse of 
the first chapter of the last, and what is com- 
monly regarded as the most mysterious book in 
the Bible — as if there would be a peculiar ten- 
dency and disposition to neglect the sublime vi- 
sions of the Apocalypse — " Blessed is he that 
readeth, and they that hear the words of this pro- 
phecy, and keep those things which are written 
therein," Rev. i. 3. So far, therefore, from the 
study being unprofitable, when rightly pursued, 
a special blessing is pronounced on those who 
thus engage in it ; and, what is more, that bless- 
ing was promised and recorded when the pro- 
phecy was unfulfilled. But notwithstanding 
this plain declaration of the Holy Ghost, to the 



RECAPITULATION. 179 

utility of studying unfulfilled prophecy , we are 
told that it will not repay us for the labor of the 
investigation, and that, if we touch upon pro- 
phecy at all, we ought to confine ourselves to 
that which has been fulfilled! Nor are such 
commendations in the inspired volume confined 
to one or two passages. They are scattered 
through different portions of the Bible, and 
reach their culminating point in the last book 
of God's revelations to the church. In the last 
chapter of the Apocalypse, as well as- in the 
first, is the blessing pronounced on him " that 
keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this 
book," Rev. xxii. 7. But how can he yield an 
intelligent obedience to those sayings, unless he 
knows what they are ; and how can he know 
what they are, unless he applies himself to the 
Scripture in which they are contained % If our 
heavenly Father has condescended to give us an 
explanation of the mysteries of the Bible — as for 
instance by the angel in Rev. xvii. 7, where it is 
written, " I will tell thee the mystery " — the least 
we can do, in grateful return for his kindness, is 
to study such explanations with diligence, hu- 
mility, and prayer. Let us direct our energies 
to the task, and meditate on ' the thrilling decla- 
rations of the sure word of prophecy, and our la- 



180 RECAPITULATION. 

bor, so far from being either useless or irksome, 
will be a source of the highest pleasure and 
profit. 

The sure word of prophecy ! By its heavenly 
light, in what immeasurable grandeur appears 
the plan of redemption! Ages upon ages roll 
by, and still the throng of unnumbered worship- 
pers shout hosannas to the Lamb. True, indeed, 
during the " little season," Rev. xx. 3, 7-9, in 
which Satan, after the expiration of the millen- 
nium, is loosed from his prison, and goes forth 
" to deceive the nations," a part of the unglori- 
fied inhabitants of the earth revolt from their 
allegiance, and are destroyed without remedy ; 
yet nevertheless, how vastly must the number of 
the righteous exceed that of the wicked ! There 
is no intimation in the Scriptures, that even 
after the three hundred and sixty thousand years 
are ended, there are no longer to be men in the 
natural life. On the contrary, it is a legiti- 
mate inference, as we have already proved, that 
through eternal ages, generation after generation 
will appear on the earth. Innumerable multi- 
tudes may thus give full proof of their allegi- 
ance, and be rewarded with immortality, as were 
Enoch and Elijah, without seeing death. And 
if this be so, with what rapturous transport will 



RECAPITULATION. 181 

the Saviour reflect upon his atoning sacrifice! 
With what triumphant exultation will he con- 
template his victory over Satan and the grave ! 
And with what intense delight will all the saints 
and angels regard the fulfilment of the predic- 
tion — "He shall see of the travail of his soul, 
and shall be satisfied," Isaiah liii. 11. A monu- 
ment of the evil of sin will remain in some part 
of God's dominions — a most impressive warning 
against all disloyalty — a most powerful motive 
to persevere in the pathway of honor and truth ; 
but the necessity of upholding the moral govern- 
ment of Jehovah by the execution of legal pe- 
nalty on incorrigible transgressors, will be so 
clearly seen, and the will of the righteous so per- 
fectly in accordance with that of their heavenly 
Father, that ihe wretchedness in the prison-house 
of the universe will not detract from their bliss. 
It is in this respect in the spiritual as it is in the 
material world. The spots on the surface of the 
sun are but small when contrasted with the rest 
of his disk; we can, indeed, discern them, but 
they do not perceptibly diminish his effulgence 
when he floods creation with his glorious beams. 
The laws of symbolization, which have been 
treated in this Essay, are clear and intelligible, 
few in number, remembered without difficulty, 



182 RECAPITULATION. 

and generally obvious in their application. If 
but a moderate portion of the time and labor 
which are often devoted to the study of foreign 
languages and abstruse sciences, were given to 
the investigation of these principles, they could 
be easily and thoroughly understood. They are 
a master key to the different wards of symbolic 
prophecy ; and by rightly applying it, we obtain 
a vivid and realizing view of the perfections of 
God, and a more accurate knowledge of his high 
counsels of love. What was before dark is 
clothed in light. What was before uninviting, 
because regarded as unintelligible, is invested 
with surpassing interest. We are furnished with 
new and more powerful motives to glorify our 
Maker, to do good to our fellow men, and to run 
with patience the race set before us. We are 
supported under trials, cheered amidst difficul- 
ties and discouragements, and go on our way re- 
joicing. Confiding in God, we ascend the mount 
of promise, and looking beyond the present scene 
of trouble and darkness, a prospect more glorious 
than that which Moses saw from the top of Pis- 
gah, meets our enraptured vision. Surely such 
a subject demands the attention of Christians in 
general, and especially of ministers and teach- 
ers of the word. Its claims ought not lightly 



RECAPITULATION. 183 

to be disregarded. "We are directed to endure 
hardness as good soldiers. ¥e must not faint 
by the way ; and if it requires diligent study to 
understand these parts of the sacred word, we 
must buckle on the harness, and put our shoul- 
der to the wheel. The church has a right to ex- 
pect it from those to whom she looks for instruc- 
tion. The providence of God calls for it. The 
signs of the times demand it. We live in a most 
wonderful age; and if events, such as those which 
have been noticed in this Essay, are revealed, 
and the time of their accomplishment is at hand, 
we ought to know it ourselves, and proclaim it 
to others. Let us, therefore, search the oracles 
of God ; let us take his word as a lamp unto our 
feet, and a light unto our path ; and while faith- 
fully performing our duties day by day, instead 
of being disheartened and cast down by present 
trials, let us look at the prospect which is be- 
yond, and lift up our heads, knowing that our 
redemption draweth nigh. The agitations of 
worldly politics will soon be over, and instead 
of empires governed by the principles of man's 
wisdom, and which rise and fall in the fluctua- 
tions of human affairs, there will be, a kingdom 
which cannot be moved, a kingdom whose origin 
was laid in the counsels of eternity, whose mani- 



184 RECAPITULATION. 

Testation has been foretold by all the prophets 
since the world began, whose grandeur will sur- 
pass our loftiest conceptions, and of whose dura- 
tion there shall be no end. 



THE END. 



jjvlay 9, 1854.] 



BOOKS ON THE LAWS OF SYMBOLIZATION AND 
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 

As among those who read the foregoing Essay there may be 
persons who are not aware of the origin of the laws of which 
it treats, the discussions respecting them, and the extent to 
which they have been applied to the interpretation of the 
symbolic Scriptures, the Publisher gives notice that those 
who desire it may obtain the requisite information from an 
Exposition of the Apocalypse, by the Editor of the Theological 
and Literary Journal, in which they were originally stated, 
and are applied to the interpretation of the whole series of 
the symbols of that prophecy; and from the Journal itself, 
which was established mainly for the purpose, on the one 
hand, of investigating, demonstrating, and applying them, 
and on the other, of pointing out the errors of other modes of 
treating the symbols. They are accordingly presented there, 
as they are quoted in the Essay, discussed at length, applied 
to nearly all the symbols of the Old and New Testament, the 
results unfolded to which they lead, answers given to objec- 
tions to them, and the most ample evidence furnished that they 
ovei-turn the current notions which those who spiritualize the 
prophecies entertain of God's great purposes of mercy towards 
our race. The principles, also, on which other writers — spi- 
ritualists and anti-spiritualists — proceed in their expositions 
are stated, many of their volumes and essays reviewed, and 
their defects and errors pointed out. 

The laws of Figurative Language also — respecting which as 
erroneous views prevail as in regard to symbols — are presented 
in the Journal, and exemplified in the interpretation of much 
of Isaiah, and many passages from other parts of the Sacred 
Volume. These laws are as new, and as just, and work as 
important changes in interpretation, as the Laws of Symboli- 
zation. 



186 CONTENTS. 

Besides these discussions, there is also in the Journal a series 
of articles on the principal philosophical and scientific theo- 
ries of the period, that touch in a measure the doctrines of 
theology, and the understanding of which is necessary to the 
just interpretation of the Scriptures: — such in metaphysics, as 
the idealistic Atheism of Kant and Coleridge ; the Pantheism 
of Swedenborg, Schleiermacher, Schelling, and Hegel ; the 
schemes of their disciples, Parker, Newman, Bushnell, Park, 
and Nevin ; the development theory of Neander and Schaff ; 
and such in natural science, as the doctrine of modern geolo- 
gists respecting the age of the world. Those anti-Scriptural 
systems which have been openly advocated, or in a measure 
sanctioned and eulogized by most of the periodicals of the day, 
are thoroughly discussed in the Journal ; their principles un- 
folded so clearly as to be easily understood by the reader, and 
their antagonism to the Scriptures demonstrated. 

Beside these, there is also in the Journal a variety of Essays 
and Reviews on other topics of interest, as is seen from the 
following list of the articles of the several volumes : — 

CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 

NO. I. 

IMPORTANCE OF A JUST UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROPHETIC 
SCRIPTURES. BY THE EDITOR — FALSE METHODS THAT HAVE 
PREVAILED OF INTERPRETING THE APOCALYPSE. BY THE 

EDITOR- — THE LATE REVOLUTION IN EUROPE DR. CHALMERS'S 

SCRIPTURE READINGS RELIGION TEACHING. BY EXAMPLE 

CRITICAL AND LITERARY NOTICES. 

NO. II. 

THE LAWS OF SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION. BY THE EDITOR 

STRAUSS' AND NEANDER's LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. BY THE 

EDITOR MORELL'S HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE SPECULATIVE 

PHILOSOPHY OF EUROPE. BY THE EDITOR — FLEMING^ RISE 
AND FALL OF PAPACY — CRITICAL AND LITERARY NOTICES. 

NO. III. 

ANALYSIS OF THE PRINCIPAL FIGURES OF THE SCRIPTURES 
AND STATEMENT OF THEIR LAWS. BY THE EDITOR — MR. FA • 



CONTEXTS. 187 

BER'S SACRED CALENDAR OF PROPHECY. BY THE EDITOR DR. 

SPRING'S POWER OF THE PULPIT. BY R. W. DICKINSON, D.D 

THE RELATION OF THE PRESENT DISPENSATION TO CHRIST'S 
FUTURE REIGN. BY THE EDITOR — SPRATT AND FORBEs's 
TRAVELS IN LYCIA, MILYAS, AND THE CIBYRATIS — MEMOIR OF 
MRS. MARY E. VAN LENNEP— JOURNAL OF AN EXPEDITION INTO 

THE INTERIOR OF TROPICAL AUSTRALIA MR. BICKERSTETHS 

SIGNS OF THE TIMES IN THE EAST — A WARNING TO THE WEST 
LITERARY AND CRITICAL NOTICES. 

NO. IV. 

mr. faber's sacred calendar of prophecy. by the 
editor — Alexander's earlier and later prophecies of 

isaiah. bv the editor designation and classification 

of the figures of isaiah, chap. i. by the editor — cole- 
ridge's philosophy of christianity, ah atheistic idealism. 

by the editor — trotter's expedition to the niger 

smith's voyage and shipwreck of st. paul — literary and 
critical notices. 

CONTENTS OF VOL. II. 

NO. I. 

A DESIGNATION OF THE FIGURES OF ISAIAH, CHAP. H. BY 
THE EDITOR — THE RESTORATION OF THE ISRAELITES. BY THE 

EDITOR DR. BUSHNELL'S DISSERTATION ON LANGUAGE — THE 

CITIES AND CEMETERIES OF ETRURIA — NOEL'S UNION OF CHURCH 
AND STATE— HOARE's HARMONY OF THE APOCALYPSE LITE- 
RARY AND CRITICAL NOTICES. 

NO. II. 

dr. bushnell's discourses — a designation of the fi- 
gures of isaiah, chap. iii. and iv. the restoration of the 

israelites — united states expedition to "the jordan and 
dead sea — the princepal predicted events that are to 
precede Christ's coming — narrative of events in Borneo 
and celebes — literary and critical notices 

NO. III. 

MORELL'S FHIXOSOPHY OF RELIGION — A DESIGNATION OF THE 
FIGURES OF ISAIAH, CHAP. V. AND VI FABER's SACRED CA- 



188 CONTENTS. 



LENDAR OF PROPHECY — THE RESTORATION OF THE ISRAELITES 
— SWEDENBORG's THEORY OF SYMBOLS AND LANGUAGE — LAY- 
ARD'S NINEVEH — LITERARY AND CRITICAL NOTICES. 

NO. IV. 

MORELL's PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION — THE DANGERS AND 
DIFFICULTIES OF THE MINISTRY — OBJECTIONS TO THE LAWS OF 
SYMBOLIZATION A DESIGNATION AND EXPOSITION OF THE FI- 
GURES OF ISAIAH, CHAP. VII. A HISTORY OF COLONIZATION ON 

THE WESTERN COAST OF AFRICA BEATTIE's DISCOURSE ON 

THE MILLENNIAL STATE OF THE CHURCH — LITERARY AND 
CRITICAL NOTICES. 

CONTENTS OF VOL. III. 

NO. I. 

mr. Steele's essay on Christ's kingdom — a designation 
and exposition of the figures of isaiah, chap. viii. re- 
searches in asia minor, pontus, and armenia prof. mc- 

clelland's rules for the interpretation of prophecy 

objections to the laws of figures critics and corres- 
pondents — miscellanies literary and critical no- 
TICES. 

NO. II. 
PROFESSOR PARK'S THEOLOGIES OF THE INTELLECT AND THE 

FEELINGS MODERN SYSTEMS OF BD3LICAL HERMENEUTICS 

PROFESSOR CROSBY ON THE SECOND ADVENT A DESIGNATION 

AND EXPOSITION OF THE FIGURES OF ISAIAH, CHAP. IX. DR. 

KEITH ON THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES — CRITICS AND CORRES- 
PONDENTS — MISCELLANIES LITERARY AND CRITICAL NOTICES. 

NO. III. 

PROFESSOR STUART'S COMMENTARY ON DANIEL A DESIGNA- 
TION AND EXPOSITION OF THE FIGURES OF ISAIAH, CHAPTER X. 

DOBNEY ON FUTURE PUNISHMENT PROFESSOR AGASSIZ^ 

THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN RACE — THE ADVERB 

MISCELLANIES — CRITICS AND CORRESPONDENTS LITERARY 

AND CRITICAL NOTICES. 

NO. IV. 

brown on Christ's second coming — a designation and 



CONTENTS. 189 

EXPOSITION OF THE FIGURES OF ISAIAH, CHAPTERS XI. AND XII. 

OBJECTIONS TO THE LAWS OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE 

THOUGHTS ON THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PROPHECIES — THE 

CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS AND LAWS OF PROPHETIC SYMBOLS 

LITERARY AND CRITICAL NOTICES. 

CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. 

NO. I. 

brown on Christ's second coming — a designation and 
exposition of the figures of isaiah, chap. xhi. and 
xiv. philological contributions — the theophany cele- 
brated psalm xviii. real, not figurative the papal 

power identified with the little horn of the fourth 
beast. daniel vii. — gobat's three years' residence in 
abyssinia — critics and correspondents — literary and 
critical notices. 

NO. II. 

brown on Christ's second coming — a designation and 
exposition of the figures of isaiah, chap. xiv. 28-32. 

xv., xvi., and xvii. foreign missions and millenarianism, 

an essay for- the times the holy ghost the author of 

the only advancement of mankind todd's discourses on 

the prophecies — ferg cjssoivs eastern architecture — 
literary and critical notices. 

. NO. III. 
FAIRBAIRN's TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE — THE ORIGIN OF. THE 

sabbath. by r. w. dickinson, d.d., the interpretation 

of scripture. by e. fond, d.d., — a designation and expo- 
sition of the figures of isaiah, chap. xviii., xix., and 

xx. the fulness of the time. by john forsyth, jun., 

d.d. the order of the principal events that are to 

precede Christ's coming — critics and correspondents — 
literary and critical notices. 

NO. IV. 

GENESIS, AND GEOLOGICAL THEORY OF THE AGE OF THE 
EARTH — THE SABBATH AND ITS MODERN ASSAILANTS. BY R. 



190 CONTENTS. < 

W. DICKINSON, D.D., PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

BY REV. D. INGLIS METAPHYSICAL AND GOSPEL TRUTH AND 

ERROR. BY THE REV. S. D. CLARK THE FIGURATIVE CHA- 
RACTER OF THE SACRED WRITINGS. BY E. POND, D.D. — LITE- 
RARY AND CRITICAL NOTICES. 

CONTENTS OF VOL. V. 

NO. I. 

THE THEORY ON WHICH GEOLOGISTS FOUND THEIR DEDUC- 
TION OF THE GREAT AGE OF THE WORLD A DESIGNATION AND 

EXPOSITION OF THE FIGURES OF ISAIAH, CHAP. XXI. THE 

TRUE GOD KNOWN ONLY BY FAITH — DR. SPRING'S DISCOURSES 
ON THE MILLENNIUM LITERARY AND CRITICAL NOTICES. 

NO. II. 

THE SOURCES FROM WHICH THE MATERIALS OF THE PRESENT 

CRUST OF THE EARTH WERE DERIVED A DESIGNATION AND 

EXPOSITION OF THE FIGURES OF ISAIAH, CHAP. XXII. THE 

EXCELLENCE AND IMPORTANCE OF TRUTH. BY REV. S. D. 
CLARK — TENDENCIES OF THE TIMES — CRITICS AND CORRES- 
PONDENTS — ANSWERS TO THE OBJECTIONS OF GEOLOGISTS — THE 
SIXTH VIAL LITERARY AND CRITICAL NOTICES. 

NO. III. 

dr. Hitchcock's religion of geology — the neglect of 
the sacred scriptures. by r. w. dickinson, d.d — dr. 
wordsworth's lectures on the apocalypse — a designa- 
tion AND EXPOSITION OF THE FIGURES OF ISAIAH, CHAP. 

xxiii. the fulness of the times. by j. forsyth, jr., d.d. 

mr. Williamson's letters to a millenarian — the re- 

establishment of the napoleon dynasty literary and 

critical notices. 

NO. IV. 

HENRY'S LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN CALVIN. BY R. W. DICK- 
INSON, D.D. DR. J. P. SMITH ON THE GEOLOGICAL THEORY 

THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES. BY THE REV. W. C. FOWLER — - 
THE DOCTRINES OF DR. NEVIN AND HIS PARTY — CRITICS AND 
CORRESPONDENTS — LITERARY AND CRITICAL NOTICES. 



.May 9~1S5 



CONTENTS. 191 

CONTENTS OF VOL. VI. 

NO. I. 

dr. j. p. smith on the geological theory — the rev. 
albert barnes's notes on revelation xx. 4-6. by the 
rev. h. carleton — the princeton review on millena- 

rianism the distastefulness of christianity. by the 

rev. e. d. smith, d.d. — english universities. by the rev. 

w. c. fowler dr. nevin's pantheistic and development 

theories — literary and critical notices. 

NO. II. 

LETTERS TO A MDLLENARIAN — FALSE TEACHERS : THEIR 
CHARACTER AND DOOM — MERCANTILE MORALS — COMMENTA- 
RIES ON THE LAWS OF THE ANCIENT HEBREWS. BY E. POND, 

D D. THE PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY REVIEW ON MILLENA- 

RIANISM THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH THE REVIVAL OF THE 

FRENCH EMPERORSHIP — A DESIGNATION AND EXPOSITION OF 

THE FIGURES OF ISAIAH, CHAP. XXIV THE SYMBOLS OF THE 

SIXTH VIAL — LITERARY AND CRITICAL NOTICES. 

NO. Ill 

HJPPOLYTUS AND HIS AGE — THE REV. A. BARNES'S NOTES ON 

REVELATION XX. 4-6. BY THE REV. H. CARLETON THE 

DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT AS TAUGHT IN ISAIAH LIL, LHI. BY 

THE REV. E. C. WINES, D.D. CHRIST'S SECOND COMING — THE 

INSPIRATION OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES. BY THE REV. J. W. 

HALL, D.D. A DESIGNATION AND EXPOSITION OF THE FIGURES 

OF ISAIAH, CHAP. XXV. AND XXVI — HENGSTENBERG ON THE SONG 
OF SOLOMON. BY THE REV. JOHN FORSYTH, JUN., D.D — THE 

FALL OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE LITERARY AND CRITICAL 

NOTICES. 

NO. IV. 

Christ's second coming — inquiry into the meaning of 

matthew xxiv. 14. by the rev. john richards, d.d. 

beecher's conflict of ages — infidelity, its aspects, 
causes, and agencies. by r. w. dickinson, d.d— the priest 
and the huguenot — history of the apostolic church — 
literary critical and notices. 



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